


The King of Hearts

by Whispering_Until_Daylight



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-26
Updated: 2019-09-21
Packaged: 2020-09-26 20:09:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 57,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20395444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whispering_Until_Daylight/pseuds/Whispering_Until_Daylight
Summary: Black Knight AU / After defeating the Black Knight, Sonic was ready to move on to his next adventure ... Well, that was until all these new secrets began popping up about who King Arthur really is. And now Lancelot is acting weird around the cobalt hero. It seems like this story is just beginning. (SonicXLancelot, maybe Sonadow in later chapters)





	1. The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> First story I uploaded to Ao3! :)
> 
> I originally wrote this story on FFN, but decided to transfer it over to here! You can find the original version on FFN under my username Whispering-Until-Daylight!
> 
> Hope you enjoy!
> 
> xx Whisper

"Hey! Cut that out!"

Sonic felt his cheeks heat up as he glanced quickly between the three figures before him, each one kneeling and bowing their head. He rushed his hand through his quills and shot a confused look towards Caliburn. Meanwhile, said sword was attempting to muffle a chuckle as the three knights rose to their feet.

"So, this is indeed the real King Arthur once again …?" The black-and-red knight, who looked uncannily similar to Shadow the Hedgehog, spoke first. There appeared to be a slight hesitation in his question, though his eyes fixed themselves steadily on the blue hedgehog in front of him. The two other knights, one with the appearances of Blaze the Cat and the other of Knuckles the Echidna, also stared intently at Sonic, almost as if asking the same question as their peer.

Sonic raised an eyebrow at the question, all the previous awkward feelings escaping him. 'Once again'? Though before he had the opportunity to ask for clarification, Caliburn responded –

"I am afraid that this is not the Arthur you are thinking of, Sir Lancelot. The hedgehog you see in front of you is not of our world, and is only related to the one you think of in terms of appearances – and in their mutual possession of my approval." Caliburn smiled at the last addition to his answer, however the faces of all three knights seemed to become … sad? … for a brief moment before they regained their composure.

Sonic could no longer contain his confusion as a puzzled expression took over his face. He looked between the sword to his left, to the knights in front of him, and even to the Lady of the Lake (who looked an awful lot like Amy Rose), Nimue, who had been silent thus far.

"What are you guys going on about?" Sonic finally verbalized after a brief moment of silence. His ear twitched as he crossed his arms.

This time, Nimue stepped forward in order to look Sonic head-on. "Sir Sonic, as you have seemed to notice during your time in Camelot, every individual here bears a resemblance to a person from your home world. You are no exception to this, and in fact the original King Arthur – the one who formed the Knights of the Round Table and brought peace to the kingdom – was a hedgehog who looked just like you!"

A gentle smile formed on Nimue's face, though Sonic merely scrunched his nose in response. He guess it made sense that there would be a version of him somewhere in this world …

"But, what happened to him then?" Sonic asked. This question earned him a mixture of reactions. Caliburn and Nimue immediately lost their cheerful expressions and a pang of worry seemed to emerge in the latter's face. The Blaze-look-alike, Sir Percival, and the Knuckles-look-alike, Sir Gawain, looked visibly tense, whereas the expression on Sir Lancelot's face remained mostly unreadable as the visor of his armor covered his eyes.

"Now is that not the million ring question!" Gawain growled out. Percival shot a scolding glance in his direction before interrupting.

"Hold your tongue, Gawain!" The cat softened her gaze as she looked towards the confused hedgehog in front of her. "Nobody seems to know quite what happened to the king. One day he went to go retrieve the sacred sword of Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake, though he never returned …"

"That means I was the last to see him," Nimue added quietly, she had a small sliver of a smile on her face though her voice was quiet and reflective. "I thought the sword would do him well, help him lead the kingdom towards justice and peace. It was only a few days later though that the Black Knight – the shadowy figure you saw ruling our kingdom – appeared and claimed himself to be King Arthur. It was said that he was bewitched by the scabbard of Excalibur that I had given him, which is what transformed him into such an evil tyrant …."

Nimue stared towards the distance now at nothing in particular. A gleam of guilt formed in her eyes and Sonic was tempted to reach a hand out to comfort her, but she lifted her own hand in order to keep him away.

"It is quite alright," she spoke once more, turning her head to face Sonic again.

"At first, none of us believed that such a power-hungry and strange-looking figure could truly be the same King Arthur we had known and adored," Percival added. "However, this new Arthur appeared to have all the memories of the old Arthur, so it was hard for us to dispute his identity …"

"And the Royal Wizard Merlin even vouched for the new Arthur. He was the one who told us that the scabbard's magic was what had changed the king," Gawain continued, though his voice trailed off near the end. Everybody seemed to be placing the final dots of the past together – well, everybody expect for Sonic, who was still attempting to follow along with what was happening.

Though, even Sonic eventually came to the same realization that everybody else had reached.

"Then it was Merlin who was responsible for the king's disappearance. He removed the king just so he could replace Arthur with his own illusion." It was Lancelot who finally spoke the idea that drifted in everyone's mind. The knight kept a stoic expression as he spoke, though Sonic detected a hidden anger under his tone.

"I never trusted that magical freak!" Gawain pounded his fist into his hand. His shouting earning an unamused grunt from Lancelot.

Percival sighed. "But Merlin has long since passed away, and the secrets of the king's whereabouts may have died with him …"

"Or maybe not!" Gawain stomped forward, and for a split second Sonic believed that the angry echidna was coming for him and braced himself, though Gawain only shoved past Sonic to face the person sitting behind him.

"I bet Merlin would have passed all his secrets to his beloved little granddaughter!" All eyes locked onto Merlina, who had been forgotten as she sat silently with her flower the entire conversation. Gawain stomped forwards until his shadow casted over her, his nostrils flaring with each breath he took in. Merlina stared up at him in terror and quickly tossed her flower to the ground.

"N-No! No no!" she called frantically, pushing herself backwards and attempting to crabwalk away from the red knight. "I do not know anything of the king's whereabouts! Nor do I believe my grandfather did either! The old king's disappearance happened on its own terms, my grandfather merely took advantage of the unfortunate situation with his illusion –"

"Likely story!" Gawain huffed out before grabbing Merlina by her sleeve and yanking her to her feet. By this point, both Lancelot and Percival had begun to walk past Sonic in order to surround the girl while Nimue and Caliburn watched with horror plastered on their faces.

Just as Gawain drew his arm back to take a swing at the young wizard, however, another hand shot up and grabbed onto his wrist, successfully holding him back.

"Wow, cool down, hothead!" Gawain snapped his head to face the blue hedgehog grabbing onto his arm, though Gawain only tightened his grip on Merlina's sleeve.

"Look, I get it," Sonic said as he used his free hand to wave away whatever comment Gawain was about to hurl at him. "You're angry and rightfully so. It's awful what happened to your guy's buddy Arthur. But, this won't solve anything. If Merlina says that she doesn't know where Arthur is, then I say you should believe her."

Flames were still burning in Gawain's eyes, though he did begin to loosen his grip on the girl's sleeve. Lancelot, however, scowled at the blue hedgehog, and though his visor was down, Sonic could feel Lancelot's crimson eyes piercing him.

"If I may, Your Majesty" – Sonic snorted at the title, which Lancelot clearly used with a hint of bitterness in his tone – "This girl has been lying to us all along. It would be foolish to begin trusting her word now."

Sonic opened his mouth to respond, but then tears began to bubble down Merlina's cheeks, drawing both of the hedgehogs' attention. Her voice was fragile and revealed the fear she was feeling as she spoke.

"I beg you, dear knight. I know that what my grandfather and I did was wrong – I understand the pains I have caused now … But, please I beg you to understand that I did only what I thought would help the kingdom … Do not forget that King Arthur was my friend too before he disappeared …"

With her last few words, Gawain dropped his grip on her sleeve completely and Merlina reached forward to touch Lancelot's hand. Lancelot yanked his palm away and turned his back towards the wizard, his face returned to its stoic state.

"Merlina is on our side now," Sonic's eyes fixed on Lancelot as he spoke, although the knight refused to make eye contact. "Scaring her isn't going to fix anything, but giving her a second chance might."

"I agree with Sir Sonic." Nimue stepped closer, smiling as Merlina stood up and brushed the dirt off her robe. "Violence is not the answer. We must trust that we will find the original King Arthur in time, and that Merlina will be willing to help us find him in any way she can."

Merlina made eye contact with Nimue and the two exchanged a silent conversation of 'thank you' and 'you are welcome'. Sonic also smiled at the exchange happening in front of him. Lancelot, however, remained silent and took several steps away from the scene behind him. Percival and Gawain both eyed Lancelot worriedly before joining suit and following him away from Merlina.

"Hm-hmph!" the sword floating next to Sonic sounded loudly, gaining everybody's attention. "Before another duel nearly breaks out, is it not proper that we begin preparing for the celebration back at the village? We have a new king after all!"

"Now hold up a second! I haven't agreed to this whole king thing yet!"


	2. Tensions

The hero's protests were in vain, for soon enough the group began to make their way towards the village. By the time they reached the edge of the town, Nimue said her goodbyes and disappeared in a wave of blue mist, which Sonic assumed meant she was returning to the lake. As soon as the remaining members of the group entered the village, all eyes turned towards them. The villagers gathered along the edges of the street just to watch as they walked past, though none of them said a word. It led Sonic to wonder if any information had spread about the Black Knight's illusion and the defeating of Merlina. Said wizard hung her head down low and avoided the gaze of the townsfolk.

The three knights lead the rest of the way to the palace. They stuck close together and occasionally either Percival or Gawain would sneak a glance at Sonic, Merlina, and Caliburn. The latter three stuck close together as well, with Caliburn making the occasional comment about the buildings they passed and all the ideas he had about how to improve the kingdom and with Merlina keeping her eyes focused solely on the ground in front of her, clearly deep in thought. Sonic, meanwhile, focused his attention on the armored trio walking several feet ahead of them. He could see the feline and echidna lean towards each other and whisper various comments, usually followed by one of them turning around to face Sonic before returning to their conversation. Lancelot, on the other hand, kept his eyes forward and seemed to pay no mind to the two gossipers next to him – nor to anything else, for that matter. Sonic huffed and twitched his ears.

"You know, if you have something to say, you might as well say it to my face," he finally threw out, catching everybody by surprise.

Percival and Gawain both twisted around in order to face Sonic while Lancelot merely turned his head to the side.

"I apologize," the feline said rather sheepishly. She looked like a young child who just got caught passing notes to their best friend in class. "We were not meaning to be disrespectful, Your Majes—"

"Don't call me that. Just 'Sonic' is fine," Sonic interrupted. He normally would not be this huffy, though these knights were starting to get on his nerves. First with how they treated Merlina, and now with the judgmental stares and whispering – he knew that they had been through a lot in these last few hours alone, but still …

"I apologize once again, Yo—Urm, Sir Sonic," Percival continued. "Sir Gawain and I were simply discussing ideas for the celebration. We should be arriving at the palace shortly."

Sonic rolled his eyes as everybody began to move forward again. He did not believe that the two knights were talking about the celebration, but he decided to drop the topic. He glanced over to Merlina who was still walking by his side and saw that she had resumed staring intently at the ground in front of her. Her eyes were still red from her earlier crying. He sighed. He knows that what she did was wrong, but he could not help but feel sorry for the girl. He only hoped that she could learn to get along with the knights and the villagers once again.

After a few brief moments of silence, the group arrived at the palace. As soon as the group got within the proximity of the giant castle, however, they were mobbed by maids and guards of all sorts – Sonic even thought he saw look-alikes of Jet the Hawk and Silver the Hedgehog both dressed in armor. Each individual that approached the group came with the same questions – What was happening? What happened to the king? What happened with Merlina? What was that giant swirl in the sky from earlier?

Percival, Gawain, and Lancelot did their best to clear a path into the palace while Caliburn did his best to answer any question that was flung at the group. By the time the group was able to push their way into the palace and entered into what Sonic assumed was the main dining area, the hero felt like he had seen the face of nearly every person who worked in this palace. Caliburn, surprisingly, did a good job at convincing everybody to calm down from their initial panic and to begin preparing for a celebration to mark their freedom from tyranny. Percival and Gawain were quickly swept away in all the preparations and general chaos that existed within the palace walls, whereas Caliburn busied himself by harking orders at nearly everybody who passed (earning a chuckle from Sonic every time a maid or servant jumped at the sight of the floating, talking sword).

That left Sonic and Lancelot lost in the midst of all the motion and noise.

Sonic sat down on the closest chair and kicked his feet up on the dining table, earning him a few confused looks from the various servants running around. It seems like there was nothing for him to do at the time, and only now did he become brutally aware of all the bruises and scrapes he received during his fight with Merlina. He rubbed his neck and stretched until his back cracked loudly. He snuck a glance over towards Lancelot, who remained nearby but seemed to be staring off into the distance, his visor still covering all emotion on his face. Sonic smirked and rolled his eyes – this ebony hedgehog truly was like his counterpart from back home.

"What's the matter? Shouldn't you be helping everybody else?" Sonic asked after a moment of silence.

Lancelot did not even bother to look over. He huffed and curtly replied, "It is not my duty to cook or clean."

"Oh, so is it your duty to be a professional sourpuss then?" Sonic gave a cocky grin as the knight shot him a death glare. Lancelot did not know what a 'sourpuss' was, but he assumed it was not a compliment. Sonic laughed at his facial expression and shrugged. "Lighten up, Lance. It was just a joke."

"I feel that I do not understand your sense of humor," Lancelot replied plainly. "I am not some 'sour cat', as you say, but rather I am the most trusted knight to the king. My duty is to be the last line of defense and to serve as the king's personal guard."

"Well I hope you don't think of yourself as being my bodyguard," Sonic responded with a snort. He shifted his eyes away from Lancelot and began rubbing a bruise on his knee. Though Sonic could not see Lancelot's face, the ebony knight raised an eye ridge at this remark. "I can take care of myself."

"You speak foolishly," Lancelot responded after a moment, leaving Sonic to be the one with a confused expression. "Perhaps as a rogue knave with no responsibilities, it was suitable for you to live so recklessly, but as a king and public figure, it is not reasonable—"

"I'm not a king though!" the hero protested, flattening his ears against his skull. "I'm just a guy who likes running and doing the right thing. I agreed to this celebration because I think it will be fun, but don't get the impression that I actually plan on staying in Camelot. And don't get the idea that I'd ever need you to protect me. Now, why don't you go help the others set up? I'd do so myself if I knew where anything was."

For once, Lancelot was incapable of hiding his emotions as shock clearly overcame his face. However, rather quickly, his surprise melted away into an unrecognizable emotion. His nose scrunched and he bit his lip to prevent himself from throwing an insult towards the blue menace that sat nearly five feet away from him. His hand squeezed the handle of the sword that dangled from his hip, almost upon instinct.

"Your Majesty, may I sit next to you?" the quiet voice of Merlina drew Sonic's attention away from the angry knight behind him. The wizard had been nearly forgotten amongst all the commotion – though perhaps this was done on purpose, since the girl was probably terrified of the townspeople's reactions if they discovered that she was responsible for almost destroying the kingdom.

Sonic gave his famous smile towards her. "Of course, sit wherever you'd like! But, please just call me Sonic!" He winked at her and a light blush appeared on Merlina's cheeks. She quickly placed herself right next to the hero, her stance instantly relaxing itself in the presence of the one person she would consider a friend. Lancelot watched the scene from his position and probably would have rolled his eyes if he knew the meaning of such a gesture. Instead, he merely looked the other direction and awaited for Percival and Gawain to return from their duties.

After what felt like forever for the impatient hedgehog and the angsty knight, the feast was prepared and soon servants began carrying dishes of various sizes and smells into the dining room and placed them so the entire table was covered from edge to edge. Sonic clapped his hands together and let his tongue hang out despite not recognizing a majority of the foods in front of him. He wondered if he could try to explain what a chili-dog was to one of the chefs …

As Sir Lancelot hesitantly sat himself on the right side of Sonic, Percival and Gawain reappeared and sat directly across from the hedgehog duo. The Jet-look-alike and Silver-look-alike from before also made a reappearance and sat one on each side of the table. Multiple servants stood against the walls of the room and seemed to be waiting to be needed. Sonic did not wait for any more people to arrive, however, and immediately reached for what appeared to be an entire roasted pig. Before his hand could touch the greasy leg though, Caliburn busted into the room and floated to the end of the table. The hedgehog's ears perked up and he twisted to face the sword as everybody else did the same.

"Here! Here!" Caliburn began, bouncing as he spoke. His voice echoed off the walls of the dining room, beaming with joy and pride. "Let it be known that this day is indeed a great one! For today we celebrate the saving of our great kingdom of Camelot and mark the end of an evil tyrant's reign!"

At this comment, the servants who had been standing silently to the sidelines began to clap and cheer. Even some of the knights at the table got into it as Gawain pounded on the table and hollered which was soon followed by Percival and the two nameless knights hitting on the table as well. Lancelot crossed his arms but Sonic caught him lightly tapping his fingers on his upper arm to show his approval. Merlina smiled slightly, but her eyes focused on the empty plate in front of her with her reflection staring back at her.

Caliburn loudly 'hmpf'ed in order to regain everybody's attention. "Beyond this, let it be known that this day will be a day of celebration! For not only have we been freed from tyranny, but a new reign has been born today! For today I, the great sword Caliburn, have declared that a new reign of King Arthur shall begin – or, rather, the reign of King Sonic has begun!"

Instantly, the room refilled with cheering, followed by loud conversations from the servants. "So, it's true? That truly is King Arthur, he's come back?" one spoke. "No, no. I heard that he is not the same Arthur, but is a hero from a different kingdom," another replied. "But, he looks just like him …" "Maybe they are related somehow?"

Sonic groaned and flattened his ears against his head to muffle the noise. He placed his elbow on the table and leaned against his hand, looking over to Caliburn who seemed oblivious to the hero's annoyed expression. He'd have to have a word with Caliburn after dinner …

"I would like to speak a word on the new king's behalf!" All attention turned to one of the nameless knights, the Silver-look-alike, who suddenly stood up and raised his glass in the air. "I, Sir Galahad, am deeply sorry that I could not join the king at his last brave fight to save the kingdom. Though I pledge to loyally follow him, whatever the costs, from here on out!"

All the other knights at the table rose their glasses at the end of Galahad's speech and gave various shouts of approval – well, all except Lancelot once again, who merely lifted his glass without making a sound. Sonic gave a half-hearted smile towards the excitable silver hedgehog for the sake of being polite, but internally he was developing a headache from all this 'king' stuff. Turns out Medieval parties were totally not his scene.

"I would like to speak on the king's behalf as well." This time, the voice that spoke sounded shaky and unsure and everybody turned to Merlina, who was now standing. "I, the wizard Merlina, affirm that Sir Sonic saved the kingdom, and I do not want to erase the significance of that … Though, beyond this, Sir Sonic also saved me." Glancing around the room, Sonic noticed the neutral, if not unreadable, expressions of all the knights. He heard Merlina gulp before quickly continuing. "A-and, I look forward to serving a hero who is so compassionate and good of heart. I can only hope that the new king can find a use for me as the kingdom of Camelot moves forward."

With that, Merlina quickly sat down and resumed staring down at her plate. She was biting her lip and purposefully avoiding looking towards the others in the room. The knights of the table soon raised their glasses once more, though it was clear that this time they were acting merely out of formality.

"Pff, maybe the witch could be useful … in the training fields with a target on her back." Percival covered her mouth in order to hide her laugh as Gawain leaned away from her after murmuring in her ear. His voice was almost unnoticeable, though still barely detectable to Sonic's sensitive ears. Sonic furrowed his brows and shot a quick glare towards the whispering knights, though neither seemed to notice. He then quickly turned to the wizard next to him and rested his hand near hers. This earned Merlina's attention and Sonic smiled brightly at her. "There's always a need for good friends," Sonic said with a wink. Merlina smiled in return, placing her hand on top of his. Gawain and Percival quickly became silent at this remark, though their faces had much to say.

Before they had a chance to complain, however, Caliburn began to bounce once more and exclaimed, "And now that everybody has spoken their peace, it is time to feast! Long live the king!"

"Long live the king!" The people of the room repeated as the sword moved to be by Sonic's side before resting himself against Sonic's chair.

Sonic huffed and pretended to ignore the cheering for the sake of his own sanity. Instead, he finally reached out and grabbed that pig's leg that had been calling him. He soon began to stuff his face as chatter filled the air. During the conversation, which Sonic only half-paid attention to, the Jet-look-alike introduced himself as Sir Lamorak and pledged his allegiance to Sonic as well (earning yet another half-smile and eye role from the mentioned hedgehog), Gawain began to chug wine and clearly became more drunk and nonsensical with every sip, and Lancelot made light chat with Galahad who seemed more interested in talking than actually having something important to say. Sonic shoved an entire handful of berries into his mouth and licked away the juices from his fingers, earning him an annoyed snort from Lancelot but also a small laugh from Merlina. Said wizard poked at the food in front of her with a fork, though showed little interest in eating it. This time, Sonic laughed and tapped the potato that rested on her plate.

"You know that's edible, right?"

Merlina smiled softly. "I know, I have just been thinking …" Sonic cocked his head, causing Merlina to continue. "You will make a great king, Sir Sonic. Though I am afraid that not even the greatest king could convince the Knights of the Round Table to accept me."

This time it was Sonic who smiled softly. "Hey, it'll be okay. You just got to keep your head up. I know they'll learn to see your good side, they just need time. Though, I'm sorry to say that I'm not going to be the great king you guys keep making me out to be – I'm not going to be a king at all."

"But—" Merlina began, her eyes opening wide. Sonic waved his hand to dismiss her response. "I know, I know," he interrupted. "But I can't stay here, I'll need to go eventually. Besides, I don't have what it takes to be a king. It's not my style really."

"Pfff, hear ye, hear ye! The great Knight of the Wind, the slayer of evil tyrants, is too afraid to be a king!" The drunk Gawain hollered loudly, hiccuping in the middle of his sentence.

Percival raised her hand in the air as if she was preparing to smack the echidna, but Gawain leaned away from her and began to smack the table and laugh at a nonexistent joke. Sonic audibly growled. The rest of the room was swallowed in silence.

"Heck, though I must say I do agree with the big blue on one thing!" Gawain continued after another chug of wine. His speech was more slurred this time around. "Perhaps he does not have what it takes to be a king! Kings are … are selfless and loyal – loyal to their people! Hoozah!" Gawain lifted his cup into the air, then went for another sip. Though, before he could accomplish that, Percival swung and hit her companion on the back of the head. With a loud 'urg!', Gawain bent forward and dumped the rest of his cup onto his lap. Percival turned to speak to the angered hedgehog, but was abruptly cut off—

"What a load of bologna!" Sonic retorted. His quills had risen up and seemed spikier. "I do have plenty of loyalty, and I'm not afraid of anything! Look, I'm sorry I can't be your guys' king – I really am. But, lay off the accusations."

"Hm, you say you are loyal, but yet you plan to leave an entire kingdom of people with no leader simply to continue being a reckless adventurer?" To everybody's surprise, it was Lancelot who spoke next. His question earning a startled expression from Sonic and a confused reaction from nearly everybody else. His voice was calm and serious, not even pausing to wait for a response.

"I do disagree with Sir Gawain's rather disgraceful display," continued the dark knight. "But, perhaps he has a point. Even the illusionary Black Knight did not abandon his people like this."

"Hey, hey! Hold it right there!" Sonic slammed his hands on the table as he jumped to his feet. "Since when were you all 'my people'? I am loyal to the people I've sworn to protect, but right now those people are in a completely different dimension, which is where I plan on returning. I helped you guys out because that's just what I do, but if you want to keep playing games and pretending like I now owe you my leadership, then count me out of it!"

Dead silence, that was all there was as Sonic tossed his plate to the side and stormed out of the room. Caliburn floated high enough to see the hero slam the dining room doors, while the rest of the group glanced between each other and where Sonic had been sitting moments before.

It looks like the celebration had ended.


	3. Confessions

Sonic stretched his legs out as far as he could before crossing them again. He squirmed a bit in order to find a comfortable position on the balcony railing he was laying on, but a stubborn bruise on his back was making that nearly impossible. He groaned in frustration.

After storming out of the dining room, Sonic's natural instinct was to go outside and run off into the sunset. However, upon leaving the palace, the hedgehog was surprised to find how late it had become and the night was setting in fast. Between the oncoming darkness and his fatigued state after his earlier fight with Merlina, the hero settled for resting on one of the palace balconies instead. Sonic was probably seven stories up and from here he could see for miles. He saw the village the spawned out from the base of the palace and beyond the edges of the town he saw hills upon hills with a mixture of miniature forests and small dots of farms that went until the sky hit the ground.

Sonic had to confess – this place was beautiful. Plenty of running space (which was always a major plus in his book), no giant skyscrapers or chimney stacks to disrupt the serenity, no giant robots trying to kill him … Heck, if it were not for the constant drama and dark magics that seemed to plague this place, he might go as far to say that this was like paradise.

Except, paradise or not, it still was not home. Home was currently centuries away. It was where his friends were. Sonic folded his ears back as his mind drifted elsewhere. He wondered if time on Mobius moved at the same rate as time in Camelot. He hoped he had not been gone long … Poor Tails was probably worried sick. Though Sonic had a tendency to vanish for days at a time, the little fox's anxiety would always start acting up if Sonic went more than a week with no contact. And then there's Eggman … Sonic had no doubt that if word got around that he was away, Eggman would waste no time planning an attack on the city. The hero had no doubt that his friends could handle their own for a while, and he knew Knuckles along with the others would be more than strong enough to keep Eggman in check. But still, it should not be their responsibility to fight Eggman on their own. He was the one who swore he would protect Mobius. It was his responsibility to be the hero for his own world, but instead he was dimensions away trying to figure out another world's drama.

That was it. Sonic had to go home. He felt horrible that Camelot had lost their king, and he was curious about the whereabouts of his counterpart. But, he was not going to fill in his counterpart's shoes and pretend to be royalty until the true King Arthur is found. Especially when there seemed to be no evidence for where Arthur was or what even happened to him.

Sonic groaned once more and unfolded his ears, allowing them to drop lazily to the side. But what about Merlina and Caliburn? They were his friends too. And even if Sonic had a rather … strained … relationship with the knights at the moment, he still respected them and he could tell they were just trying to do their best given their situation. They only recently found out that the king they have been serving for the last few months was a complete fraud, and now their real king was nowhere to be found and their chosen replacement for the missing Arthur just blew up at them during their dinner party. It would not be right for Sonic to run away now. Besides, it was not like him to leave a job half-done. He had to finish what he started here … but he had to get home too.

"Arggg!" the hero let out a distressed shout as he covered his face in his hands. What was he going to do?

"I should have assumed you would be out here," a low voice replied from the ground below. Sonic lifted his ears and peaked out from between his fingers. It was Lancelot.

The ebony knight was standing directly below Sonic's balcony, making it so he had to shout simply to be heard by Sonic. Within a fluid motion, Lancelot took a step forward and disappeared as a flicker of light only to instantly reappear on Sonic's balcony with another flicker. Chaos Control. So it seems like Lancelot had the same powers as his counterpart, Sonic noted. Sonic could sense the energy radiating from the dark hedgehog as he finished his teleportation trick. It felt strange though … It had the same power of the chaos energy Sonic knew from his home world, though it felt foreign and odd. Though within a blink the energy began to dissipate into the air.

"Though I am surprised that you did not run off," Lancelot continued. Though Lancelot had a sarcastic hint in his tone, Sonic could not help but feel that he was being partially serious as well.

"Me? Run away? Never," Sonic responded, removing his hands from his face and tucking them behind his head once again. "It's been a long day anyway. I was thinking about hitting the hay soon."

Lancelot merely hummed in response. The knight walked to the edge of the balcony and rested his elbows on the railing. For what felt like the first time since Sonic had met him, Lancelot lifted his visor to reveal his ruby red eyes. Sonic stared intently at the knight. He looked even more like Shadow now that his eyes were exposed. It has been so long since Sonic had spoken to Shadow, he would have to make sure to do that when he got home …

"It is quite the view," Lancelot spoke after a moment of silence. Sonic nearly fell off the railing as he broke out of his thoughts, though quickly regained his balance.

"A place like this needs a king. Somebody who is capable of keeping order, preserving it's splendor—"

"If you came here to talk me into being your guy's temporary king, then I'm sorry to say that it won't work," Sonic interrupted, though his voice sounded more exasperated rather than angry. Lancelot sighed and his eyes lowered to his hands in front of him.

"I do not understand you, Sir Knight of the Wind. I have never met an individual so determined to avoid a higher title."

Sonic shrugged. "I don't care about titles, they're just words. I care about doing what's right."

Lancelot paused for a minute, closely examining a little flower petal that had been resting on the balcony railing. "Is that why you spared Merlina?" he finally asked. "Despite the fact that she is a known traitor and liar. Because you believe denying due justice to a criminal is 'right'?"

"I think showing mercy and giving people second chances is right."

"She nearly destroyed the entire kingdom."

"And now she's promised to help fix it by finding the old king."

"Her and her grandfather are most likely the reason on why the king is missing in the first place."

"You don't know that."

"You do not know that she is innocent."

"She said she was—"

"And I suppose having blind trust in chronic liars is part of 'doing what's right' in your mind?" Lancelot interrupted. With each phrase the hedgehogs had thrown at each other, their voices became more and more like growls until they were in a full-fledged argument. Lancelot was standing straight now with his crimson eyes piercing into Sonic.

"What is your problem?" Sonic retorted. Over the course of the argument, he had shifted so he was sitting upright on the railing, facing Lancelot. His own emerald eyes cut into Lancelot. "You try to convince me to be your temporary king, then you take issue with everything I do to help! What gives?"

Lancelot breathed heavily and in one quick motion, he lowered his visor over his eyes once more. His expression almost became unreadable except for the frown planted on his muzzle.

"I simply do not understand you," Lancelot said quietly, almost as if he was contemplating his own words. "You defeat the illusionary King Arthur, you tell us that you do not desire to take his place on the throne, and then you ask us to trust in the girl who mostly likely caused the true Arthur to vanish. It is as if you are trying to remove the existence of the king altogether."

Sonic listened attentively and allowed his stature to soften. He relaxed his shoulders and his stare grew gentle. "So, that's what this is about? If it makes you feel better, I promise that I'm not out to destroy your guys' monarchy. I want to find Arthur – the real Arthur. I just don't think that violence and aggression is the way to go about doing that." Lancelot did not look at Sonic, though the blue hedgehog knew that the other was listening closely. "You really care about having a king to follow, don't cha?"

Lancelot shook his head. "I do not care about having any king to follow. I care only about following Arthur."

"He sounds like he was a swell guy," Sonic added. "Probably was a good-looking one too," he laughed lightly and rubbed his nose at his own joke. To Sonic's surprise, Lancelot let out a short laugh as well.

"He was truly the greatest of kings," Lancelot began. "He was fearless and powerful, never afraid to defend his people even at the risk of his own life. Though he always remained compassionate, such compassion that I never had imagined a king could possess prior to meeting him. He would show kindness towards even the most unwilling or undeserving that the world had to offer …" Lancelot crossed his arms, and Sonic could see him squeezing tightly onto his forearms with his hands. Sonic was tempted to go over and hug the knight, though Lancelot began speaking again before he had the chance.

"He would have forgiven Merlina." Lancelot's voice was low and quiet. "He had forgiven much worse than her during his time …"

This time, Sonic actually did stand up and walk over to the knight. Lancelot turned his head to face Sonic, but was quickly left speechless as the blue hedgehog reached up and flipped the knight's visor open once more. Lancelot blinked in surprise as his newly exposed eyes scanned the hedgehog in front of him.

"That's better," Sonic said, placing his hands on his hips. "I like it when your visor is up, you should keep it that way more often." Sonic shot a friendly smile at Lancelot, causing the ebony one to form a slight blush which he prayed the other would not notice.

"You truly are like King Arthur," Lancelot finally stated after regaining his voice. "I suppose it has been so long since I have been around the true king, that I forgot what he was like …" Lancelot returned his gaze to the valleys in the distance. "Why did Merlina have to bring his lookalike into this world, of all people?"

Sonic snorted at the comment. "Don't worry, Lance," Sonic added. "We'll find Arthur. I promise."

For the remainder of the evening, the two hedgehogs stayed on the balcony in silence. Sonic returned to his position on the railing and soon fell asleep under the stars appearing in the sky. Lancelot spent most of his time staring out into space, though his mind was far elsewhere. After what felt like hours, he turned his attention to the blue hedgehog and sighed. It would not be safe for Sonic to remain outdoors for the night, and Lancelot doubted it was overly comfortable either. As quietly and gently as possible, as to not wake the sleeping hero, Lancelot lifted Sonic off the railing and cradled him bridal style in his arms. Instinctually, Sonic curled him and placed his face against the cold chest plate near where Lancelot's chest fur would be. Lancelot sighed and closed his eyes. He mumbled quietly under his breath and in a flash of light the two hedgehogs had disappeared.

The next morning, Sonic awoke to the sound of chatter happening several feet away from him. He slowly blinked his eyes open and stretched his arms out above him. After rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he glanced around. He was … on a bed?

He felt the plush mattress below him and examined the blankets placed on top of him. It was true, he somehow ended up in a bedroom, though he could have sworn he fell asleep on the balcony …

A tint of pink emerged on the hero's cheeks. Somebody must have brought him here, and if his memory serves him right, then there was only one other person there when he fell asleep.

Sonic's ears perked up as the chattering grew louder. He turned towards the door of the bedroom and could hear that the voices where coming from the other side. The door muffled what was being said, though he could recognize the voices of Percival and Gawain. He groaned. He hoped that the two were not going to revive the conversation from last night's dinner party.

He knew that staying in bed forever was not going to help, however, so with great speed Sonic pushed himself to his feet. He slipped on his shoes (which somebody must have taken off and put by his bed, which made Sonic wonder how they did that without waking him up) and then opened up the bedrooms doors. Standing right outside was Percival and Gawain, who simultaneously jumped in surprise at the sound of the doors swinging open.

"Good morning, Sir Sonic," Percival said first. She smiled warmly, though a slight blush formed on her cheeks. "Sorry if we woke you. Lancelot informed us that you were in this room and we came to speak to you."

"It's fine," Sonic responded quickly. He hoped the two knights did not ask Lancelot how he knew which room Sonic was in… The image of Lancelot carrying him briefly reappeared in the hero's mind. "What do you got for me?"

"Firstly, we come to apologize for our behavior last night," Percival stated. She then turned to Gawain and nudged him with her elbow. At this signal, Gawain took a step forward.

"Yes, yes. I wanted to apologize for the comments I made to you last night. Wine can sometimes bring out a worse side of me," Gawain said, though from his hesitant tone Sonic could tell that he was not in the habit of apologizing to people.

"All is good, guys. I guess I'm sorry to for the things I said," Sonic responded. "I want to help you guys, I really do. But, you got to understand that there is only so long I can stay here."

Both Gawain and Percival nodded, though Sonic could tell there were still hints of disappointment in the air.

"Understood," Percival finally said. "The second thing we came to inform you of is that the Lady of the Lake sent a request this morning that we come see her at once."

"Nimue rarely calls the Knights to visit her, so it must be something serious," Gawain added. "We should leave as soon as we can."

Sonic nodded, "Then let's not waste any more time!"

The trio made their way to the front entrance of the palace where Lancelot, Merlina, and Caliburn were all waiting. Caliburn suggested that he remain behind at the palace, trusting that Sonic would be safe without a sword as long as he remained with the three knights. With everything set, the three knights, Sonic, and Merlina all headed out. Thanks to their super speed, Sonic and Lancelot were capable of running ahead of the group, though they tried to reduce their speed enough as to not leave the others in the dust. Despite their decreased speed, the two hedgehogs still managed to arrive at the lake a few minutes before everybody else.

Sonic scanned the glistening blue waters before him and then looked back to where the others would be coming from.

"Guess we should have slowed down a bit more," he thought aloud. Lancelot merely hummed in reply, his eyes looking over at the lake. Sonic looked the knight next to him up and down briefly.

"By the way, Lance …" The knight perked his ears up at the nickname, though did not turn his head to face Sonic. Sonic sighed, "I just wanted to say thank you. For last night."

Lancelot glanced at Sonic momentarily. "I was simply doing my duty," he added. Sonic was about to snort at that response, but then Lancelot reached up and flipped open his visor revealing his eyes. Sonic kept quiet, silently understanding that was Lancelot's way of being friendly. Lancelot and Shadow truly were a lot alike, they both had their unique, yet secret ways of showing their approval of something.

"Thank you for not leaving us behind!" Gawain's voice shouted out from behind the hedgehogs. They both turned to see their three companions rushing towards them before stopping once they got close.

Sonic laughed and scratched the back of his head. "Sorry about that, guys!"

"I apologize for keeping you all waiting," a voice seemed to echo from the trees surrounding the group. Everybody looked around frantically, though nobody seemed to be able to identify where the voice was coming from until a spot on the lake began to bubble. Suddenly, Nimue emerged from the waters in a giant bubble which carried her to shore before placing her on the ground and popping out of existence. They all watched in amazement as the pink hedgehog curtsied politely and smiled warmly at them all.

"I realize that it is early, though I am afraid that we have much to discuss. Please, follow me." Nimue lifted her hand as if to indicate the direction she wanted them all to go and immediately began leading the group around the edge of the lake. Everybody followed her silently until they reached an area that caused them all to gasp.

The stones near the edge of the lake were covered in what appeared to be thick, black mold. The grass nearby was all dead and some of it looked like it was partially disintegrated. Black pieces of ash seemed to float like fireflies around the dead area. There was even a tree nearby that was decaying and slowly breaking, to the point where Sonic was afraid that it was a split second away from falling over.

"What happened here?" Percival asked the question they all were silently thinking.

Nimue had a sad expression on her face and folded her hands over her heart.

"I am afraid to say that spots like these are beginning to appear everywhere around the kingdom of Camelot. They are small in number now, though they will only continue to spread. This is the sign of the breaking apart of our world." Nimue's voice was quiet, though her words caused everybody to jump and yell out various forms of "What do you mean?" "How can this be?" and "What caused this?"

Nimue did not remove her eyes from the death in front of her and continued to speak as if she did not hear anybody's question. "I began to notice this black matter spreading around the time that the Black Knight began to rule Camelot. I originally believed that it was his overuse of dark magic that was causing the spread of all this death and darkness. However, even after the Black Knight was defeated, the darkness remained. And I now realize that this problem was far worse than I had imagined. I realized that the only force strong enough to cause this much havoc for our world is an imbalance with the Arcane Emeralds."

The last words spoken by Nimue now arose a variety of reactions. While Sonic became lost at what Nimue was speaking about, Lancelot seemed to only nod as if in agreement with her. Percival and Gawain on the other hand both looked at each other with awe yet concern apparent on their faces. Merlina, however, had the most peculiar reaction in Sonic's mind, as her whole face seemed to pale and her pupils shrank, almost like she had seen a ghost.

"But, you are not speaking of the Seven Arcane Emeralds, are you?" Gawain asked rather loudly, puzzlement apparent in his tone. "I thought that those were only a legend!"

"Many people believe that the Lady of the Lake is merely a legend as well," Nimue replied, sneaking a small smile in Gawain's direction. "There are many secrets of this world that have been hidden under the guise of legends. The Arcane Emeralds are very much real, and just as the legends say, they are the most powerful artifacts in this world. Their power alone is enough to manipulate both space and time. This is useful for keeping the universe in balance, however when they become imbalanced …" Nimue's eyes lingered over the dead grass and blackened rocks once more.

The entire group examined the site.

"These Arcane Emeralds sound just like the Chaos Emeralds from my world," Sonic eventually spoke, catching everybody's attention. This time around, everybody had a confused expression on their face.

"I am afraid I have never heard of these Chaos Emeralds before," Nimue responded. "Though I assume that if your world also has seven powerful gems, then the Arcane Emeralds are merely their counterparts for our world."

Sonic nodded as he thoroughly scanned the almost-fallen tree. He had been working with the Chaos Emeralds for years back at his world, though he has never seen something like this before. Something really wrong must be happening to this world …

"Usually when we run into problems of this size back home, our plan is to try and unite the seven Chaos Emeralds. That usually supplies enough power to solve any problem, even world-shattering ones."

"I was thinking of a similar plan," Nimue said. "Whatever is causing this imbalance, bringing the seven emeralds together should be enough for them to balance each other once more." Nimue now turned to Lancelot. "This is why I am glad that you are here, Sir Lancelot. Do you still have the emerald I gave you?"

Lancelot nodded and reached into his chest plate and pulled out a small gem. It was smaller than a Chaos Emerald, Sonic quickly noted, though he could feel that same foreign yet powerful energy emitting off of it. The emerald was small enough to fit into a closed fist and shaped like a rhombus. The gem glowed bright red which only intensified Lancelot's natural eye color as the light reflected off his irises. Nimue extended her hand and accepted the emerald. Gawain and Percival stared in disbelief.

"You mean to tell us that you had a mystical emerald of legend this entire time and never bothered to mention it?" Gawain pouted, his face turning a bit redder than it already was. Lancelot merely scoffed and shrugged.

"How did you think I was capable of moving from one place to another in an instant?" Lancelot replied dryly. Gawain stumbled upon his words for a moment, but never came up with a response. Sonic found it hard to contain his laugh at the interaction.

"Sir Lancelot and King Arthur helped gather the seven emeralds once before – long before the king's disappearance. I trusted that both of them were good of heart and could keep the existence of the emeralds a secret in order to avoid having them fall into the wrong hands, and therefore I allowed them each to keep one," Nimue explained. "The other five emeralds, however, I kept hidden here so that I could watch over them."

Nimue raised her hands into the air and suddenly bubbles began to form over the surface of the lake as if it were boiling water. The entire group watched in amazement as the lake's surface transformed into a pool of bright white light as five bubbles floated above the surface and into the air. Each of the bubbles contained a small gem that looked identical to the one that Lancelot handed over, except for their color. The red gem, which had been floating in between Nimue's hands, drifted over to its lookalikes. Once it was aligned with the rest, another bubble emerged from the surface of the lake and captured it. Nimue smiled and lowered her arms. Slowly, the bubbles sank back into the lake, pulling the emeralds down with them, and the water settled down until it looked like any other body of water once more.

"Though, wait a moment," Percival said, interrupting the awestruck atmosphere that surrounded the group. "We still need the seventh emerald to stop this destruction, and yet did you not say that you gave the last emerald to King Arthur long ago?"

These words broke everybody out of their trance as they all looked at each other with equally puzzled expressions. Nimue brought her hands to her heart again and looked towards the ground.

"I am afraid that is correct. I assume that the last emerald is still with King Arthur … And I can only assume that what caused the Arcane Emeralds to become imbalanced is related to his disappearance. This darkness began to spread around the time that the Black Knight came to Camelot, which was also around the time that the true King Arthur disappeared along with the seventh emerald. There is no mistaking that these instances are all related."

Lancelot crossed his arms over his chest, and though Sonic cannot recall when, sometime during this meeting Lancelot must have lowered his visor in order to prevent people from reading his face. Sonic glanced towards Percival and Gawain who shared the same expression of worry and despair, though Gawain also had a hint of anger in his stare. Sonic breathed heavily. As if they were not in enough of a rush to get the real Arthur back, now it seems like the safety of their whole world depended on it …

Finally, Sonic glanced towards Merlina – or, rather, he glanced towards where Merlina used to be standing.

"H-hey, where did Merlina go?" Sonic asked. The rest of the group slowly looked around, nobody spotting the young wizard anywhere.

"She must have ran off while we were not looking," Percival stated, though it seemed like she was more of talking to herself rather than anybody else. A deep frown formed on Sonic's face, why would she run away?

Without another word, Sonic took off in a blue blur. He thought he heard some of the others call out after him, though he did not waste the time to listen. Thankfully, he did not have to travel far, for he found the young wizard sitting on a lonely fallen tree somewhere in the middle of the forest. More disintegrated grass and black mold was growing around the tree and Merlina's eyes seemed fixated on the darkness. Though her eyes were focused on the ground, Sonic could tell that she was fighting back tears.

"Merlina?" The hedgehog spoke quietly, walking towards her slowly as not to startle her. Merlina did not even bother to look up.

"I have done something terrible, Sonic …" was all she said.


	4. Truth

"Merlina, what's going on?"

Sonic sat down on the fallen tree next to the wizard. The hero could hear Merlina exhale loudly as she reached towards the ground and plucked a dead blade of grass. The brown plant soon broke into pieces in her grasp and fell back to the ground as little crumbs.

"I was telling the truth when I said that I do not know where Arthur is. I promise you that I would never—" the wizard cut herself off, before exhaling abruptly once more and continuing. "The king was my friend, he was always so kind to me. I would never have caused him to disappear … At least not on purpose." Merlina paused once again, and for a moment she moved her hand as if she was going to grab another blade of grass, but she must have soon decided against it as her hand returned to her lap. She glanced at the hedgehog sitting next to her, before returning her eyes to the grass.

"What I am trying to say, I suppose, is that I know more about the king's disappearance than I originally stated … Though, please, please, trust me when I say that I was not responsible—at least, not in the way the knights' believe me to be. And I did not mean to lie earlier, but with Sir Gawain right there and the way he threatened me, I just said what I needed to—"

Merlina went silent when Sonic placed his gloved hand under her chin and moved her face to meet his eyes. He had a stern look on his face for once and a frown was present on his muzzle, though he did not look angry, but rather disappointed – like how a parent would feel after being lied to by their child. If there was one thing Sonic hated, it was lying, especially when it came from people he had defended and vouched for. Though, he could not help but be somewhat compassionate towards the wizard's pleas. He removed his hand from her face.

"I understand, Merlina," Sonic finally stated, his frown bending upwards into a slight smile, but his eyes remaining stern. "Please, if you can, tell me what you know."

Merlina nodded slowly, forcing a small smile to form on her face, though it quickly faded. "I guess … I should start from the beginning," she began, folding her arms tightly around her torso as if she was hugging herself. "During the reign of King Arthur – the true King Arthur – my grandfather, Merlin, was the Royal Wizard. I was his apprentice, living with and learning from my grandfather so that I may one day take his place." At these words, a light smile formed on Merlina's face – a genuine smile. Sonic watched her intently, his ears twitching slightly in order to encourage her to continue speaking.

Merlina cleared her throat and continued on. "I was always so eager to impress my grandfather. My grandfather was known across the land as being the greatest wizard of all time, and I suppose that I wanted him to be proud of me, I wanted to become even greater than he was. So, I would study magic on my own time, exploring and practicing any spell or mythical method I could find. And, as you can imagine, as my thirst for improving my abilities became stronger, I eventually began to explore more challenging and even dangerous spells, I began searching for even more powerful magical tools that I could bend to my will … Even using a magical opal that would allow me to see into the future."

The young female's voice trailed off at the end of her sentence. Her eyes never moved from the blades of grass by her feet that she was closely examining. Sonic let out a low hum, trying to process everything he was being told.

"And you got a little carried away by what you saw?" the hedgehog asked, already knowing the answer. He rested his hand on Merlina's shoulder and gave it a friendly pat. The wizard nodded slowly.

"You could say that …" she added quietly, forcing a light laugh before quickly falling silent again. She took a deep breath and then continued. "What I saw horrified me. My kingdom, the one I swore to protect and serve, and all my friends … all of it would fall apart. I would lose everything. I wanted so desperately to be known as a greater wizard, to become greater than even my grandfather was. I thought that I could stop Camelot from ever falling, save it for eternity, and thus protect everything I hold dear while securing my place as being the most powerful wizard of all time … But, I was misguided and arrogant, as you since taught me, Sir Sonic. And, as you should know, you were not the only one who thought that way …"

Merlina lifted her head for the first time since she started speaking and stared at Sonic directly. Her face was serious, though sad. Her voice was stern and certain.

"King Arthur also knew that I was losing sight of reality due to my grief for what was to come. And … Our conflict is what lead to his disappearance."

Sonic perked his ears up at this revelation. His mind was racing as he was putting together all the information he was being told. Though he tried to keep a relaxed composure, his hand tightened its grip on the log the two were sitting on. His spines twitched. He trusted Merlina, he really did. To hear her now confess all of this to him, that she knew more about Arthur than she originally let on despite the fact that Sonic vouched that she was innocent … It irked him. Sonic put a lot of trust in his friends, it stung to know that trust may have been misplaced. Though, on the other hand, Merlina was in a tough spot. Gawain and the other knights were openly threatening her and she is attempting to make up for her mistakes by helping them find the king. Sonic sighed and smirked at Merlina, silently encouraging her to elaborate on what she meant. Merlina did not waste time for another signal and dove back into her story.

"Please understand, Sir Sonic, I never wanted any harm to come to King Arthur … But it was my arrogance and corrupted thinking that resulted in his ultimate fate …"

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Feet pounded on the stone floors as she bolted down the castle hallway. Her eyes darted between looking straight ahead and glancing to the side to see the various doors she passed. She was almost there. Just down this hallway, then take one right, then down three more doors. She could only hope that she could get there before he left. The rushing wizard nearly crashed into the wall as she sprinted around the corner. An older chipmunk maid had to jump out of the way in order to avoid being run over by her. It was just three doors away now.

"King Arthur!" The wizard shouted as she finally reached her destination. She yanked the doors open, causing each one to hit the wall. A heavy sigh of relief escaped the girl's lips when she saw that the very person she came to see was still standing inside his bedroom. Though Merlina quickly noted that he was not alone, as an armored hedgehog, whom Merlina instantly recognized as Sir Lancelot, stood by his side.

"Merlina?!" Arthur nearly jumped out of his skin upon the wizard's abrupt entrance. He quickly regained his composure and laughed lightly. "Is everything alright? You look as if you just ran across the entire town." Merlina nodded and flashed a smile at the king, though she also began to pant loudly. Only now did her earlier run begin to catch up to her. She breathed in deeply and took in the sight before her. It looked as if Lancelot and Arthur had been in the middle of a conversation prior to Merlina's abrupt interruption. Lancelot had an apparent annoyed expression on his face and folded his arms over his chest as he examined the new intruder. The ebony knight always seemed a bit unfriendly in Merlina's eyes, so she admittedly never talked to him often. He was almost always within arm's reach of the king, which made sense given his duties as the king's personal guard. Yet that also made Lancelot rather unreachable to practically everybody else. They were almost a humorous pair, Lancelot and Arthur, for while one was unsocial and brooding, the other was inviting and charismatic.

Arthur's appearances matched his alluring personality. As one would expect, he looked uncannily similar to his Mobian counterpart, Sonic the Hedgehog. Expect, this blue hedgehog almost looked older, or at least more mature than his alternate. Instead of red sneakers and white gloves, the king was decorated with simplistic, yet very fine looking, brown leather shoes each with a golden buckle, and his gloves were made of the same material, though were almost always covered by metallic gauntlets for the sake of sword fighting. Around his neck was a simple silver chain attached to a green crystal which glowed brightly as it rested against his chest. Typically the king would be adorned with more formal wear – his red cape and the royal crown, to be specific – and would only remove them when he was going for a run or off into battle. Merlina soon noted that both those items were absent from the king's current look. She must have just caught him before he left.

Merlina shook her mind free of her thoughts as she finally caught her breath. She came her for a reason, an important one at that, so she must not waste time.

"My liege," she began, once again capturing the full attention of both hedgehogs in the room. "I am so glad I was able to find you before you departed to the forest. If I may, is it alright if we speak in private for but a moment? I promise you it is of the upmost importance." Merlina tried hard to keep her voice steady and serious, though quite honestly she was in the midst of panicking on the inside. Flashes of the horrid things she witnessed earlier raced through her mind. The future, what she had seen from that spell, the destruction of all of Camelot … It shook her to the bones to even think about it now.

Despite her efforts, however, she was certain that Arthur had detected her nerves, for a trace of concern washed over his face. He turned to Lancelot, his expression suddenly quite serious. "Please, may we have a moment," he spoke calmly. Lancelot glanced between the king and the wizard, clearly unamused with the request. Though, without a word, he grunted and made his way towards the door. Prior to leaving, however, he turned to face Arthur once more.

"I will wait by the front gates, sire. Please make this quick." Lancelot shot another annoyed glance at Merlina. Arthur gave a quick nod towards the knight, and with that Lancelot left and closed the doors behind him.

"I apologize for Sir Lancelot," Arthur added shortly after the other left. His eyes were fixated on the door that Lancelot had just exited. "He does not mean to be rude, though he has been under quite a bit of stress recently."

Merlina made no comment in response. Mostly because in her mind Lancelot had always behaved that way and she was no longer phased by it, though also because she had much more important matters to discuss at the moment.

"Sir, is it true that you are going to visit the Lady of the Lake in order to receive the scabbard of Excalibur?" Merlina asked bluntly, drawing the hedgehog's attention away from the door and towards her.

"Why … yes, I am." Arthur began to chuckle softly. "I guess rumors spread faster than I originally expected, I would be awful curious in knowing how you figured that out."

Merlina shook her head. "That is unnecessary information right now, my liege. What is important to know is that scabbard the Lady plans on gifting to you is, well, rather miraculous. I have been studying it for a long time now, and I believe it holds the power to save the kingdom!" The magical apprentice could hardly hold in her excitement by the end of her sentence. A strong smile took hold of her face. When her grandfather originally told her that the king was to receive the scabbard as a gift for his good deeds, Merlina had no interest. She was so absorbed in the recent discoveries she made about the approaching devastation of the kingdom that she began to lose all hope and care for what was happening around her. The images of her friends fighting and the monarchy collapsing was enough to drive her to despair, though all of those feelings were replaced with a newly found hope when she recalled what she had previously studied about the scabbard. The brilliant gift which the Lady of the Lake was about to hand to the king was no ordinary scabbard, but a powerful and mystical tool – loaded with magic strong enough to protect a person from all harm. And, if put into the right hands, magic that would be strong enough to prevent a kingdom from collapse …

"Save the kingdom?" Arthur narrowed his eyes and took a step towards Merlina, placing his hands on his hips.

The girl nodded, her smile never fading. "Yes, sir! As you are well aware, both you and I share the same sacred honor and duty to protect this kingdom no matter what. You as the King of the People and I as the soon-to-be Royal Wizard. We both have promised to do whatever it takes to save the kingdom from all harm. Well, with the power within the scabbard of Excalibur, we could save the kingdom … forever." Merlina paused, attempting to judge the king's reaction. To her surprise, Arthur kept a rather neutral, if not mildly concerned, expression on his face.

"Merlina, what are you talking about?" the blue hedgehog raised his eye ridge, closely examining the female in front of him. Merlina swiftly changed her posture. Her own eyes narrowed and her smile soon changed into a frown.

"Sir," her tone was now serious with a hint of sadness. "The kingdom is in danger, greater danger than I think either of us could have ever imagined." With these words, the blue monarch perked his ears up and his eyes widened, though Merlina kept talking before he could make a comment. "I saw it, the future of this kingdom. Camelot is destined to fall one day. It will be horrible. Sir Gawain's and Sir Lancelot's fighting will cause the disassembling of the Knights of the Round Table, your reign will come to an end, the people will be divided, and Camelot will be no more." Merlina closed her eyes and lowered her head so it was facing the ground. "This is bound to happen, my king. I saw it through the Opal of Fate—"

This time around, the cobalt hedgehog did not allow Merlina to talk over him and interrupted. "Merlina," his voice was stern and scolding, causing the female wizard to stop talking out of shock. "You were casting spells with the Opal? That sort of magic is dangerous and hard to control. You could have been hurt." Arthur's tone softened upon this last sentence, his concern for the girl overcoming his initial frustration with her. Merlina, however, only responded with a growing amount of annoyance.

"I am a better sorcerer than you give me credit for, sir" – she strained her words, a tint of red overcoming her face. "How I found out about the future is irrelevant. What is important is that the kingdom is doomed unless we act, and as the king I would expect you to be more eager to listen to me!"

Arthur's ears folded back and he bit his bottom lip in order to avoid snarling. "I am willing to do whatever is needed in order to protect Camelot – I do not need to be reminded of my royal duties! But, the concerns you have are irrational!" Arthur rubbed his temple with his fingers, attempting to calm himself down. He tried speaking in a calmer voice, though Merlina could still detect the irritation he was feeling underneath it all. "Merlina, the future is uncertain. No magical opal can tell you what will happen, only what might happen. The future you described sounds horrible, it truly does, and it breaks my heart to think that one day this kingdom will be no more. But, there is no spell or mystical scabbard out there that should be used to manipulate what has not even happened yet. If you want to change the future, you should begin by living in the now and making the kingdom safe and the people happy now!"

Merlina could not believe what she was hearing. She had expected the king to adore her idea from the start, she expected him to care about protecting the people as much as she did. Yet, here the king was, dismissing the future as if it did not matter, as if the upcoming collapse of the kingdom was a risk worth taking. Merlina breathed deeply and felt her hand clutch her robe until her knuckles turned white.

"But, why settle on only protecting the people in the moment when you could guarantee their protection forever! Why leave the fate of Camelot to mere chance when we could promise this kingdom a beautiful future that never ends!" She was shouting now, holding her fist out in front of her for emphasis as she spoke.

"And what magic could you possibly use to do that?" Arthur asked coldly, crossing his own arms over his chest. His ear twitched in frustration.

Merlina froze for a moment, taking the question in. She knew what magic she planned on using, in fact she had already researched all the spells she would need in order to complete the task ahead of her. The problem was that she did not know how to explain her ideas to the king. She knew he would not like her plan. She thought she could convince him to agree with her had she sold him on the fact that the kingdom was in danger and they had to use any means necessary to protect it, but since the king was obviously unmoved by her grief and his people's destined doom, she had no idea how to explain herself.

"Well …" Merlina began, her voice was now uncertain, losing her previous fire and fury. "There is only one place where death never occurs and time can be overpowered …" Arthur perked his ears up, listening closely, though his eyes remained narrowed and focused. "With the power of the sacred scabbard of Excalibur, I would be able to form a connection with the Underworld and call upon the magic of the dark world in order to place a permanent protective shield around Camelot – a shield that would not only protect against invaders, but also time itself …" Merlina let her voice drift off as she watched Arthur's facial expression change before her. His face went from one of mild annoyance to one of outright disgust. It hurt Merlina to even see her old friend look at her in such a way, as his pupils shrank and he scrunched his nose at the very mention of the Underworld.

"Absolutely not!" Merlina only watched as Arthur's spines flared upwards as his voice grew louder. Arthur was not the type to get easily angered – he could get annoyed or impatient rather quickly, but it was a rare occasion when he truly lost control of his temper. "Listen to yourself, Merlina! You are suggesting to bring the Realm of Darkness, the world of unlimited chaos, into Camelot? You claim you want to save the kingdom from destruction, but trying to work with the Underworld will lead to an even worst fate for the people – infinite suffering!"

"Once again, you underestimate my abilities!" Merlina shouted back, her rage quickly matching the king's. "I have been studying magic since I was a toddler! I have trained myself to preform spells that even my grandfather has not mastered! I can control the dark magic, sire, you have to trust me! It is the only chance Camelot has to survive its own fate!"

"I have trusted you and your grandfather for many years now, Merlina. But I will not allow you to destroy this world in your quest to prevent the inevitable! I may be a king in Camelot, but we are all servants to time. Once I receive the scabbard of Excalibur, I am safely storing it away in the castle vaults were nobody will be able to abuse it. And that is final."

With those words, the cobalt monarch vanished in a blue blur. Merlina barely had time to process what he said before she felt the wind rush pass her, nearly knocking her backwards. The door bust open with a bang and the speeding hedgehog disappeared from view within a second. Merlina allowed her eyes to wander after him as she stared at the swinging door beside her. After several intense minutes of thoughtful silence, the wizard left the room and slammed the door shut.

He … did not listen to her. He refused to give her the scabbard. Merlina's hand tightened on her robe again as she tried to process that conversation. It went by so quickly that she barely thought through what she had said. She thought that it would go so differently. That at the mere mention of the kingdom's collapse, the king would be as distraught and grieved as she had felt the moment she saw those horrid visions within the Opal of Fate. Those visions still clung to her mind as she imagined it all playing out – the fighting, the death, the end of all she holds dear. Yet, Arthur showed no interest in stopping this? What did he say – that she should just 'live in the now'? As if these visions of a horrid future would not haunt her every action and thought? As if she could actually pretend to enjoy being with her loved ones knowing that they will all be doomed eventually, and she could do nothing to stop it? But, she could do something to stop it. If only she had the scabbard, then she could save everybody. She could finally be the great wizard she always dreamed of, even greater than her grandfather is now. Yet, Arthur did not think she was strong enough to control the dark magic. Merlina bit her lip as her knuckles turned white under the pressure of her grip. He thought that she was weak, unexperienced – he always thought that. Regardless of how much she trained or how much she learned, everybody still viewed her as the little girl who ran around the palace preforming simple magic tricks like she did when she was only a toddler. They babied her, and as long as she lived as Merlin's apprentice, they would continue to do so. No, she could not back down. She had to prove that she was no longer an apprentice, but an equal to her grandfather – if not somewhat of his superior. She was strong enough to save the kingdom. And she would do it.

And nobody was going to stand in her way. Not even the king himself.

Merlina lifted her head up, determination filling her eyes. She knew what she had to do, though doing so will change everything. She would have to break her code as the soon-to-be Royal Wizard, she only hoped that the people and, more importantly, her friends could forgive her once she saved them. Merlina began marching down the hallway. She would need her magical staff, then she could get started.

She stretched out her hand and snapped her fingers. With a puff of smoke and twinkle of light, a large staff manifested out of thin air and she clutched it tightly. Merlina almost always kept her staff on her, it was like her lifeline. She could still preform some weaker spells without it, though in order to do any serious magic, she needed her staff as a channel. The only reason she abandoned it earlier was for the sake of running faster without having to carry such a ridiculously large object.

She made her way towards the entrance of the palace, though was abruptly cut off by an armored hedgehog leaping in her path.

"Sir Lancelot," she stated coldly. Her normal compassion had been replaced by hardened determination. She had little care for talking, she only cared about getting to the forest before the king left with the scabbard. She was a bit perplexed on why the knight was still here, given that he normally went with the king whenever he left the palace. Then again, King Arthur was definitely the forgetful sort, which is only exaggerated due to his impatience and eagerness, thus this would not be the first time he ran off while forgetting to wait for the others. Merlina smirked, though quickly tried to hide her changed expression from Lancelot. For once, the king's carelessness could work to her advantage.

Lancelot seemed to show absolutely no interest in what the girl was doing or where she was going, however, but rather seemed distracted by his own purpose.

"Where is the king?" he asked bluntly.

Merlina faked a mildly confused expression. "Oh? I believe I saw him running off towards the training fields. I believe he wanted to speak with Sir Gawain before departing with you," she lied. Lancelot would only get in the way of Merlina's goals, it was best to keep him distracted while she dealt with the king.

Lancelot grunted in annoyance.

"It is not proper that we should keep the Lady of the Lake waiting. Does he truly have to socialize with the entire palace right now?" Without waiting for a response, the knight disappeared in a streak of black and red, racing towards the training fields.

This time, Merlina allowed her smirk to cover her face. That should keep Lancelot busy for a few moments, which is all she needed to track down the king. She raised her staff in the air and quietly began to murmur Latin phrases. Green fog began to surround the staff and briskly, Merlina hit the bottom of the staff against the ground, causing the fog to rush to her feet. A spell for speed. Now, it was time for the action to begin. The wizard leaned forward and took off as a flash of green and purple.

The young girl reached the forest in only a matter of minutes thanks to her spell. She wasted no further time and got into position. She hid behind a tree near the path that the king undoubtedly would have taken to reach the lake and waited. She knew it would not take long for Arthur to appear, and as she expected, the king soon came jogging down the path, preparing to break into a full out run. And, most importantly in Merlina's eyes, the scabbard of Excalibur was in his grasp. Arthur seemed to be distracted as he closely examined his newly earned item, feeling its fabric and grinning as he turned it in his hands.

Merlina took the opportunity to strike. Within one swift motion, she raised her staff in the air and, with a few murmured Latin words, a red ball of energy formed at the top of it. She flung that energy as fast as she could and before Arthur had time to react to the surprise attack, the ball collided with his feet and disappeared into a ball of smoke.

"HEY—What the—?!" Arthur started, his eyes growing wide as he quickly realized he could no longer move his feet. He struggled and attempting to yank on his legs, but his feet felt like a million pound weight planted firmly on the ground. He growled and twisted his head to view the attacker, who slowly removed themselves from the shadows.

"I apologize, my liege," the wizard spoke. An audible gasp emerged from the hedgehog. "Though, I believe that you have something that I need."

"Merlina!" He roared, both confusion and rage burning in his eyes. "What are you doing? Release me!" The cobalt one continued to frantically pull on his legs, though they never moved an inch.

"Not until you hand me the scabbard!" She shouted in reply, her eyes filled with their own fire. "You must understand, this is the only way to save the kingdom! Camelot will never have to fall, you could be the king forever! Just trust me and hand over the scabbard!" Merlina's voice was pleading. There truly was no enjoyment for her in trapping the king and begging to him like this. He was a good leader, Merlina always thought that. But, she could not allow him to run his kingdom into the ground. She needed to save them, no matter what.

"I would never want to be king forever!" Arthur yelled back, swiftly looking around for any type of escape. "Merlina, you have to listen to me! I am sorry if I was too harsh on you back at the palace! I truly do care about the people, you need to believe that! But, I cannot allow you to do this! You must know that this is not right, you will not be able to control the Underworld!"

Merlina scowled. "DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE ME!" She screamed, nearly spitting with rage as she yelled. "If you are not strong enough to help your own kingdom, then I will!"

Merlina lifted her staff high into the air, levitating herself off the floor by several feet. She swung the staff in a circle, generating a cloud of grey smoke that covered her figure. She continued this motion until pink lightning began to form in the grey cloud surrounding her until it was impossible to see her figure amongst all the chaos. A glint of pride shone in her eyes. A paralyzation spell, and a powerful one at that. It took her months to master it, but now it was finally coming to use. This would make Arthur completely immobile for days, giving her plenty of time to work her magic. Merlina caught a glimpse at her target as the clouds swarmed around her. Though, to her surprise, it was nearly impossible to see the king's face as a bright green light was emitting around him. It took the girl only a second to realize that the light was coming from the green gem on his necklace, which was shining bright enough to cast a reflection on the pink lightning from her spell.

As the wizard prepared to fire her spell, she heard the king's booming voice echo through the forest.

"ARCANE—"

Just as the wizard flung her staff forward, flinging her spell towards Arthur, a sharp force slammed her in the back. She shrieked out in pain as she was rammed forward, losing control of her spell as her grey cloud quickly faded into nothing.

"—CONTROL!"

As the king finished this phrase, a bright white light encapsulating him. Though Merlina was flying through the air too quickly and just as the white light began to fade, the female wizard soared into it. The light eventually vanished, absorbing both the king and the wizard until they both were no longer to be seen in the forest.

Merlina could hardly process what happened after that. The world was white, yet everything felt like it was spinning. She could not hear a sound or see a thing, yet there was a vibration that rocked her to the core. Her back ached from whatever had attacked her in the forest, though she could not feel any other part of her body. For a moment she thought she caught a glimpse of the king standing in front of her, though soon even his image dissipated into nothing. Then, everything was white once more.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Sonic listened intently, not making a sound as Merlina explained her entire story. He tried to process it all, let the information sink in. So … Arthur must have attempted to use Chaos Control in order to escape Merlina, but something pushed the girl into him and thus they both got carried away. Sonic nodded, his eyes shifting to the ground as he watched his red sneakers play amongst the grass and dirt. Merlina went quiet, waiting for the hedgehog to respond to her story. Her own eyes refused to look at anything in particular as she stared off into the distance. Her eyes were wet, though she did not allow herself to cry.

After a long moment of silence, Sonic cleared his throat and spoke. "Do you know what hit you in the forest?" he asked quietly. Merlina shook her head, which Sonic only saw out of the corner of his eye. Sonic nodded before asking his next question. "Do you remember what happened after that?"

"The next thing I remember, I was waking up in my bed with my grandfather kneeling next to me," Merlina added softly, clearly trying to remember all she could. "He said a villager found me unconscious in a meadow just outside of town, and that they also found the scabbard of Excalibur next to me. Upon hearing how I got there, my grandfather told me that I had been transported through an Arcane Control and that the king must have had an Arcane Emerald. I was so perplexed at the time. I thought that the Arcane Emeralds were simply a legend like so many others did, though my grandfather told me I was lucky to even be alive after such an uncontrolled teleportation. I was so confused and my body ached everywhere, I just began to cry and told my grandfather everything…" Her voice drifted, and this time a tear actually did fall from her eye.

Sonic lowered his ears and rested his hand on Merlina's shoulder empathetically. Merlina leaned her head against his hand, her body instantly losing some of its tension.

"My grandfather was just as bothered as King Arthur had been," Merlina continued, a sad smile on her lips. "He told me the Opal of Fate was too dangerous for me and that my plan was irrational … I asked him where the king was, though he told me there was no way of knowing. That is when he came up with the idea of creating a new Arthur to take the place of the missing king. And he even gave the new Arthur the scabbard in order to keep it away from me."

"So that's why the Black Knight was chasing you when we first met?" Sonic asked, genuine curiosity blossoming in his tone.

Merlina nodded. "After my grandfather passed away, the illusionary Arthur became corrupted by the scabbard. All the illusion knew was that its purpose was the rule the kingdom and keep the scabbard away from me. Without proper direction from Merlin, the illusion began to rule the kingdom like a dictatorship and sought to capture me in order to keep me away from magic altogether."

The duo fell into another round of silence, as Sonic kicked around a few pebbles and Merlina continued to rub the tears from her eyes. Eventually, Sonic lifted his head and leaped off of the log. He turned to face Merlina, a serious expression still on his face.

"Okay, I think I got it all now," he began, waiting until Merlina looked up at him before continuing. "Merlina, you know that it was wrong of you to follow Arthur and to try to take the scabbard from him." Merlina nodded sadly. "And you should have told us sooner that you knew more about Arthur's disappearance than you originally let on." Another nod from Merlina. "But, it wasn't your fault that the king disappeared." At this, Merlina's eyes widened and she examined Sonic's face expectantly.

"What you were doing was wrong, you shouldn't have tried to freeze the guy in place," Sonic continued. "But, you didn't mean to mess up his Chaos—Urm, I mean, Arcane Control. Nor did you mean to make him vanish at all. Overall, what's in the past is in the past. Right now it's important to focus on finding the guy so we can get him home. And, to do that, I think you need to tell that others what you know."

This time, Merlina stood up from the log as well, brushing some of the dirt off her robe. She locked eyes with Sonic once more before giving a third and final nod.

"I know … I will tell them," she replied, her voice quiet yet certain. A twinkle of determination returned to her eyes. "I will help them find King Arthur, and I will make up for my past mistakes. No matter what."

Sonic grinned, giving her his trademark thumbs up. "That's the spirit!"


	5. What Now?

There was dead silence.

In the distance, one could hear horses galloping on the gravel roads and birds tweeting, but in this room filled with seven individuals, not a single sound was made.

All eyes were fixated on Merlina who looked as if she was a few seconds away from fainting. Sonic stood closely behind the wizard, leaning against the wall and preparing himself to dart forward if she were to fall. The fact that they were all placed around a table in the large palace meeting room only emphasized the emptiness in the air. Though, perhaps it was not so empty, since one could feel the tension radiating from the group. Out of the seven people gathered, only Sonic had a relatively calm expression, and that was mostly because he was trying his best to hide his inner concern for how the others would respond to the story Merlina had just shared.

When Merlina had told Sonic only an hour earlier about what she had done, he was initially frustrated and felt mildly betrayed, though he eventually came around to forgive her as long as she promised to continue trying to fix her past mistakes. Step one in that process was to confess all that she knew to the others, which was a rather large task to ask the girl. When Sonic and Merlina returned to the knights and Nimue who were waiting by the lake, Merlina decided that she wanted to gather everybody back at the palace so she could have more time to think about what she wanted to say. Now that they were here, standing around the palace meeting table and looking at her, Merlina finally had to unload all that she knew. It was a tough speech, full of pauses and stumbling on words, though eventually she got through it. And now there was just silence from her audience.

Gawain was leaning against the table that filled the center of the room and tapped his meaty fingers against the wooden surface as he processed what he heard. Or, rather, he was thinking of all the different ways he wanted to blow up at the girl, judging by the scowl planted on his muzzle. Percival stood near the back of the room near Caliburn, who had rejoined the group upon their return to the palace, and both of them exchanged looks of sadness yet concern. Nimue was actually the only person in the group to be sitting and the only one who continued to make eye contact with Merlina after her speech had ended, though her face gave away little indication of what she was thinking. Lancelot was leaning against the doorway, though his back was facing the wizard now so that Sonic could not see his expression.

Sonic's ears twitched as he rapidly started to get annoyed at the awkward silence. He guessed that he should be glad that the knights did not fly off the handle at Merlina's confession, though at the same time he wish they would at least say something. Without even thinking about it, Sonic began to tap his foot on the ground, quickly earning a concerned look from Merlina whose face still looked pale with stage fright.

"Thanks for being honest, 'Lina," the blue hero chimed in, taking it upon himself to break the silence. All eyes in the room turned to stare at him. Merlina merely nodded her head, barely managing to force a small smile.

"The king trusted you … and yet you betrayed him. You nearly killed him. You know, maybe you did, given that he has yet to be found." It was Gawain who spoke this time, finally finding the words to say after recovering from the initial shock the story gave him. Though he spoke loud enough for the entire room to hear him, his head was turned down towards the table as if he was speaking to his own shadow on the wooden surface. Sonic prepared himself to throw out a comeback at Gawain, though Merlina replied before he had the chance.

"I betrayed the king, I admit that openly," she said, her once frightened expression turning into a cold and serious one. "I was grief-stricken and afraid, and I allowed that fear to control me and pressure me into doing things that I never would have considered had I been in my right mind – including betraying one of my closest friends." Merlina turned her head to look at every person in the room individually, scanning her audience with a newly found strength that caught everybody by slight surprise. Nobody knew how the girl who was seconds away from passing out just a moment ago somehow transformed into a calm and collected speaker now. Perhaps she felt more free from her burdens now that she had told her story – learning to accept the truth is quite powerful and freeing. Merlina swallowed and then continued.

"Though, I have to correct you on one major detail, Sir Gawain. I never, not even in my most desperate and helpless state, would have intentionally killed the king. It was never my plan to cause him fatal injury, simply to freeze him in place for a few days. And though I do not know where the king's Arcane Control led him, I have the upmost confidence that he is still alive." Merlina nodded her head, almost as if she were reassuring herself of her own opinions. "I know he is still alive, and when he finally returns home, the very first thing I will do is apologize to him. And then I will surrender myself to his mercy and allow him to decide what I shall need to do to pay for the crimes I committed against him, and more importantly, against the friendship that once existed between us."

By the end of her speech, Merlina was caught in a staring contest with Gawain. The wizard and knight had locked gazes and Sonic swore he never saw either of them blink as Merlina finished speaking and waited patiently for the echidna's response. Eventually, Gawain was the one to cave in and look away. He still had a scowl on his face and he huffed before speaking, though sincerity shone through his anger as he spoke.

"Alright," he lifted his hand in the air to signify his dismissal of his earlier comments. "I shall allow the king to decide how to handle your disloyalty, if he shall return."

"When he returns," Merlina swiftly corrected.

Gawain nodded, turning back to Merlina, some of the anger disappearing off his face. "Yes, when," he repeated.

Sonic smirked, glancing back and forth between the wizard and knight. It was not much, but the fact that the red-head prevented himself from flying off the handles at Merlina and the idea that they were at least on somewhat of the same page now showed potential. Sonic wanted Merlina to make peace with the knights, it was one of his main missions he wanted to accomplish before heading home, and it seemed like this was at least a starting point.

As the tensions between Merlina and Gawain calmed, Percival pushed herself off the back wall where she had been standing next to Caliburn.

"So it is true what Nimue told us, King Arthur truly did have the green Arcane Emerald all along… Though what interests me is that I never seen him use the emerald's powers before, at least not in the fashion that Sir Lancelot used them to transport himself to different locations or generate powerful attacks. I have to wonder where he learned to use such abilities? Perhaps understanding more about this Arcane Control could give us a better idea as to where the king was transported to."

Nimue shot a small smile at Percival to show her approval, whereas Caliburn bounced to show his agreement. "Indeed, the more we understand how Arthur disappeared, the closer we shall be to finding him!" The sword spoke. "Now, the only other individual who has been known to use Arcane Control is you, Sir Lancelot – Alas! Where has Lancelot gone?"

Everybody moved their attention to the doorway, which was now void of the ebony knight who was standing there only moments before. Sonic crossed his arms and tried to restrain himself from rolling his eyes. Great, another person running off when they were distracted. What was it with Medieval people and trying to avoid talking about their problems? As Gawain and Caliburn murmured about where Lancelot could have potentially wandered off to, Sonic made his way to the door. He only hoped that Lancelot would be as easy to find as Merlina was …

"Wait, Sir Sonic!" The hedgehog felt a hand land on his shoulder before he could even take a step out of the room. He turned his head to see Percival standing right behind him. She quickly removed her hand and took a step backwards.

"Hm?" Sonic hummed as he twisted around to face the cat, who looked a bit sheepish all of the sudden.

"I … I believe it would be best to give Lancelot some space for the time being," Percival said, her voice was quiet so that only Sonic could hear her. The hedgehog twitched his ears, raising an eye ridge at her comment. Before he could ask Percival what she meant, however, the feline knight continued. "I do not believe you realize how hard Arthur's absence has been on Sir Lancelot – I do not believe that any of us could fully understand. Ever since the Black Knight was discovered to be an illusion, I could sense that there was … tension within Lancelot."

Sonic bit his bottom lip as he thought over what he was being told. Sonic simply assumed that Lancelot was identical in personality to his counterpart Shadow, so he was not really phased by the knight's grumpy attitude, though perhaps that was actually not the true personality of Lancelot? Sonic understood what Percival was saying, he was sure that realizing that the king they had been serving was actually an illusion and that their real king is missing was hard on Lancelot – especially since he was supposed to be the king's personal guard and all. But, this seemed like a rather bad time to start acting out and going off without telling anybody. They should be working on finding this Arthur guy rather than getting moody over his absence.

"I still don't understand why we should just let Lancelot wander off to… who knows where. Don't you think it would be best if he were here actually helping us figure out what to do?" Sonic eventually asked. Once again, his foot began to tap against the ground without him even realizing it. Percival frowned, a light blush coming to her cheeks. Sonic cocked his head in confusion, uncertain of what to make of the cat's reaction.

"I agree," Percival finally responded, her voice still in a whisper. "I believe that Lancelot should be helping us, though I also think it would be best if we wait for him to come back around in his own time. Lancelot's and King Arthur's relationship was, well, different than the relationship that the rest of the knights had with the king. I feel as if the king's absence has been more challenging for Lancelot because of this, and knowing him, giving him personal space is the best way to help him cope with these concerns before he is ready to help." Percival paused for a moment before shyly continuing. "I would much rather have Lancelot be by himself now than see him lose his temper at Merlina for what she has told us …"

This last bit Sonic at least understood. Though he hated to admit it, he had to agree that having Lancelot be alone for a while would be a better alternative than seeing the super-powered hedgehog try to start a fight with the scared, young wizard. But, one thing that still did not make sense to Sonic is why Lancelot was so passionately angry about all of this. Gawain and Percival were undoubtedly upset as well at everything that was happening, but even Gawain – Mister Hothead himself – was able to come to some form of agreement with Merlina just a moment before. Why would Lancelot act so much more upset than the others?

"What was so different about their relationship?" Sonic asked. Percival glanced over her shoulder, as if to reassure herself that Gawain and Caliburn were still occupied with each other. Meanwhile, it seemed that Merlina was engaged in conversation with Nimue, and the two of them quietly made their way out an alternative door on the other side of the room to continue whatever they were talking about in privacy. Percival looked back at Sonic, her voice low.

"How about we discuss this further in the hallway?" Though it was a question, Percival phrased it more like a statement and immediately began to head out the door into the hallway. Sonic followed close next to her, becoming increasingly impatient with Percival's odd behavior around this conversation.

"So, what gives?" the blue hero questioned as the two walked a few paces away from the door. Percival nodded.

"Sir Lancelot is the greatest knight of the Round Table, there is no doubt of that," she began, staring directly forward instead of making eye contact with Sonic. "He is the strongest and the closest to the king. Despite his accomplishments, however, Lancelot had a rather shady past. He does not like discussing it, especially not with I and the other knights. Though, from what I know, he was an outlaw – a violent one at that, with a high price over his head. King Arthur encountered Lancelot during one of Lancelot's schemes, and the king somehow managed to defeat him and convinced him to leave behind the life of crime. Lancelot later was knighted and worked his way through the ranks until he was the top of the Round Table."

Sonic listened attentively. He hummed in confusion and cocked his head. "He gave up on his criminal behavior just like that? Turned a new leaf over night?" As Sonic asked his question, he reflected on his own grumpy hedgehog companion from back home. It is true that Shadow used to be bent on revenge and destruction during the whole ARK incident, but he later came around and even helped Sonic save the world from the Biolizard. It seemed that Lancelot had an equally checkered past, working with the wrong side before being knocked to his senses and joining the heroes. Still, Shadow only changed his mind when he was reminded of what Maria wanted, Sonic had no idea what could have changed Lancelot's mind so quickly.

Percival shrugged, almost as if responding to Sonic's inner dialogue. "I am not sure how the king convinced Sir Lancelot to join the kingdom. Normally, a criminal with such a violent streak would have been sentenced to death or life imprisonment, but the king did the exact opposite of punishing Lancelot for his crimes and instead promoted him to one of the most honored positions in Camelot. Why the king showed such mercy to a dangerous villain is beyond me, though I am grateful for it given how impactful Lancelot has been for the kingdom as a whole."

Sonic nodded. "So … Arthur was kind to Lance and gave him a second chance, so Lance had a lot of respect for the guy?" Sonic was still attempting to explain Lancelot's earlier behavior of vanishing during the middle of their earlier meeting, though this story did not seem to be filling in all the answers. Percival shook her head.

"No, there is more to it than that … I do not believe that the king and Lancelot wanted the world to know just how close they were, though I accidentally got a glimpse of it one evening …"

'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

She should have checked the training fields first. It was the most logical location for the self-proclaimed Ultimate Knight to be, given his obsession with perfecting his techniques and improving his strength. The knight would typically be wherever the king was, though on the rare occasion that the king had official business that required the two to part, the knight always found his way over to the training fields. Still, Percival had spent the last hour at least asking around the palace in search of Sir Lancelot on the off chance that he was anywhere else in the world.

The feline walked through the stone archway, leading her into the entrance tunnel to the field. Her ears instantly perked up at the sound of clashing swords and various grunts echoing from outside of the other end of the tunnel. It sounded like there were … two voices? Perhaps Sir Lancelot had found a practice partner?

Percival made her way to the exit of the tunnel and leaned against the stone wall, as not to interrupt whatever match was occurring in front of her. She could hardly make out what was going on. All she could see were whips of red and blue dashing across the field, ramming into each other with a loud metal clash before both repelled the other in any which direction. Gusts of wind emitted from the speedy blurs blew in Percival's direction, and the knight instinctually grabbed onto her helmet as the gust brushed against her fur. She knew that the red blur had to be Sir Lancelot. As for the blue blur, however, there was only one possible option …

"I suppose the king finished his business earlier than expected …" Percival murmured to herself, flinching as another powerful blow of wind washed over her. As she stood in the archway, she could distinctly hear the two voices of Arthur and Lancelot as both panted and grunted with every blow. It must be a whole different world being able to move that quickly, Percival felt tired simply watching the two fight each other. She was partially tempted to step out onto the field in order to catch Lancelot's attention, though she knew that she would certainly be caught in the crossfire if she even dared to make such a move. Instead, the cat remained in place, silently observing the spectacle before her. One of the hedgehogs would have to stop eventually.

Thankfully, that did not take too long. After about a dozen more collisions, Percival suddenly recognized the form of King Arthur as the blue hedgehog slowed down enough that he was no longer a blur to the eye. The king paced back and forth at the far end of the field, swinging his sword carelessly as he walked. He was far enough away that Percival had to lean out of her hiding spot to view him properly. This seemed to be of little consequence, however, since both fighters were too distracted by each other to notice anything else in the world.

"Ha, you have tired yourself already, sire?" Percival twisted her head back around to see that Lancelot had also stopped running. The ebony knight stood at the opposite side of the field, much closer to where Percival herself was standing. Lancelot was standing still now, holding his sword outwards as if prepared to dart forward and strike. Percival quickly noted the cocky grin on Lancelot's face, mostly since it was so out of place. Out of all the years that she had known Lancelot, she could probably count on one hand the number of times he showed genuine amusement by something. He was always so serious and apathetic, but as he stood there now with a smile on his muzzle and sarcasm in his voice, he seemed almost … playful? Or at least a little less stoic than usual.

"You wish, my good sir!" Arthur replied, his voice as teasing as it usually is during duels. He was always the confident type, and he never failed to take an opportunity to prove his skills. "I am never tired, however. I only thought it would be fair to give you a breather. I could have sworn I heard you pant from exhaustion a few seconds ago." Arthur shot a daring smirk over at Lancelot, only earning him a snort in response.

"The Ultimate Knight can never be exhausted," Lancelot replied dismissively.

"Oh, truly?" The king cocked his head to the side, a devilish grin appearing on his face. "Say, how many times do I have to defeat you in combat before you become the 'Almost Ultimate Knight'?"

Lancelot faked a sneer, though Percival could see he was merely restraining himself from smirking. "You have yet to defeat me once, my liege," Lancelot retorted, straining the last two words. Arthur seemed as if he was about to respond, but before he had the chance, Lancelot vanished into a streak of red speeding towards him. By the time it took Percival to blink, Arthur had vanished too into a streak of blue. Soon enough the two were bouncing off of each other once more, their swords creating large bursts of sound with each impact.

Percival sighed, lowering her ears. She missed her opportunity to get Lancelot's attention in order to speak with him. She had been distracted by her eavesdropping that she forgot what she came here for originally. It seemed like both hedgehogs were at least somewhat worn out the last time they stopped, so hopefully this fight would not continue on much longer. She could only wonder how the two avoided mortally wounding each other as they so aggressively lunged attack after attack. Of course the point of training was that the knights were supposed to spare each other and avoid causing serious injury to one another, though it seemed like Arthur and Lancelot were truly in the midst of an all-out duel.

CLING—WHOOSH!

Percival's eyes shot open as she heard the too familiar sound of a knight being disarmed of their sword. Normally it was Percival who was disarming her opponent, though regardless it was always the sound of a battle ending. Percival jumped as a wayward sword plunged into the ground merely a few yards from where she was standing. She allowed her eyes and travel from the sword to the scene in the center of the arena, where the two hedgehogs now stood motionless. Lancelot stood standing tall, his sword still in hand. Arthur was bent near the ground, defenseless.

Percival could not control the gasp that escaped her lips. She had never seen the king defeated before, nor did she even think it was possible. Without really thinking about it, she stepped out of the shadows and entered into the sunlight filling the field. She only took a few steps in before stopping in her tracks once more, not making a sound. She did not want to interrupt whatever was about the happen, she could just feel that it was not a good time to interrupt.

Lancelot exhaled, staring down at Arthur as if he were prey. "I told you, sire. There is not a warrior strong enough nor quick enough to defeat me – not even you."

Arthur did not respond, however. Rather, the blue monarch remained kneeling, both his hands wrapped tightly around his raised knee. Arthur moaned lightly as he lowered his knee to the ground, and it almost sounded like he winced in pain. Percival held her breath and took another step forward, her duties as servant and protector to the monarchy overtaking her mind. Though the lavender feline never took a second step, for in the time it took her to set her first foot down, Lancelot had already completely changed stance. His confident attitude seemed to drain away and within a second he was kneeling in front of the king with both of his hands carefully caressing the injured leg. Lancelot's visor had been raised and his eyes were wide, pure worry showing through them.

"Are you alright, Arthur?" the darker hedgehog spoke, his voice so quiet that Percival had to strain her ears just to hear him. She still longed to run over and check on the king herself, though forced herself to stay back. She was so surprised by what she was seeing that she almost missed the fact that Lancelot had called the king by his first name – not 'sire' or 'Your Majesty', but rather by his first name.

Arthur lifted his head to face the knight in front of him. He was silent – eerily silent. It was not like the king to go long lengths of time without throwing out some witty line or at least saying something. Lancelot focused his attention on the king's leg, before opening his mouth slightly as if he was about to speak.

Percival jumped at the speed in which the following events took place. In one swift movement, Arthur dove forward, somehow snatching Lancelot's sword straight out of his hand and pushing the darker knight onto his back. The king was on his knees now, straddling Lancelot's waist and pressing the tip of Lancelot's own sword against his armored chest. A broad and devilish grin was planted on the king's face as he let out a chuckle.

"Ha! You really fell for that old trick again, Sir 'Ultimate Knight'? How many times has that worked now – three? Four?" Arthur's voice was full of its usual pride and confidence, allowing Percival to release a breath she did not even realize she was holding.

Lancelot, on the other hand, looked about as tense as ever. His teeth were clearly visible as he bit his lip, and though his visor was knocked down during his fall, Percival knew that he must have been staring daggers at his opponent.

"That was a dirty deception. I thought you would have enough honor to accept your defeat rather than play the part of a sore loser," Lancelot shot back, his teeth gritting as he spoke. Percival found herself rather amused at the sight, though she hated to admit it. She had never seen Lancelot lose a fight before either, and there was some enjoyment for her in seeing the hedgehog struggle to accept the fact that he was so easily fooled.

Arthur moved the sword away from the other's chest, tossing the weapon to the side to signify the end of the match. He huffed, though his playful smirk never left his face. "Accept my defeat? You do not believe that you truly disarmed me, do you? I allowed you to take away my sword, it was all part of my plan to help me defeat you." The king tossed his head to the side, watching Lancelot amusedly from the corner of his eye. In a quick movement, Arthur pushed himself off the other and up onto his feet. Lancelot remained laying on the ground.

"It was a dirty trick nonetheless. A truly honorable knight would not allow themselves to win with such deceptive methods," Lancelot retorted, frustration still clear in his tone. He soon lifted himself off the ground, brushing some of the dirt off his fur as he stood. "I take no shame in falling for your 'plan', however. For one of these days you will truly hurt yourself in a duel and will beg for me to aid you."

Arthur snorted, forcing a fake laugh. "You are right, in a real fight I would never play such games. But, I always make a special exception for my favorite opponent—" Arthur spoke with a sarcastic hint to his voice, earning a glare from Lancelot. "—Besides, you could never harm me, not even if you wanted to."

Arthur playfully glanced at Lancelot before he began to fiddle with the gauntlet on his forearm, carelessly adjusting the straps over and over again. Lancelot focused all his attention on Arthur, however. An apparent change came over his mood. The annoyed glare and deep frown slowly melted from Lancelot's face and were replaced with a softer expression, another look that Percival had never seen on the knight before and she found it hard to place what emotion he was expressing. Lancelot reached his hand out, placing it gently on Arthur's shoulder. The blue monarch perked his ears up and lifted his eyes to look at Lancelot, though his fingers still mindlessly picked at the gauntlet straps.

"Do not play with my emotions like that again." Lancelot spoke so bluntly, yet his voice did not carry its normal dominance and assertion. He sounded like he was pleading, his tone soft – it almost felt like somebody else was speaking through him.

"I did not mean to worry you so, Lancelot. It was only a game—" Arthur began, though his voice trailed off as he examined the face of the knight in front of him.

"Please, sire. Do not."

Lancelot and Arthur stared at each other intently, the only sign of life between the two was Arthur slowly nodding his head. A silent promise. Percival became painfully aware of her intrusion on this moment, as the two hedgehogs stood no more than a quarter-field away and yet it felt like they were somewhere else, in their own little world. The cat for a brief second considered turning around and simply forgetting about Lancelot and all she needed to tell him, though unfortunately she never got to make that decision.

"My gosh! Percival, how long have you been watching us?" Arthur's eyes shrank with shock as he finally noticed the lavender knight that had been standing there for a majority of their match. His abrupt astonishment quickly melted into a friendly laughter as the king jogged over to the feline and stood in front of her. "I hope it was a good show. I am glad that somebody was around to record my win against Sir Lancelot here."

Percival felt down-right sheepish. A light blush appeared on her cheeks. She did not like the idea of being an eavesdropper or a spy. She had not intended to observe the hedgehogs for so long, though she merely got absorbed by the show in front of her. She gave a friendly smile towards the king and bowed her head in respect.

"It was quite amusing, sire," she added quietly. Percival glanced over Arthur's shoulder in order to view Lancelot, who had turned his back to them. Percival could not make out what the other knight was feeling, though she saw that his arms were crossed and his spines twitched slightly as she watched him.

"I apologize for my nosiness, Your Majesty," Percival began, her blush fading. Arthur waved his hand dismissively, seemingly not phased by the situation. Percival moved her eyes back over towards Lancelot. "However, sire, I actually have come to speak with Sir Lancelot about some knightly matters."

Percival could see Lancelot's ears perk up at the sound of his name, though he still refused to look towards her. Soon, Arthur was staring over at Lancelot as well.

"Ah, well Lancelot and I have just finished! He is now free to be at your disposal," Arthur motioned his hand towards Lancelot as he spoke, a cocky smile on his face the whole way through.

Percival nodded, and headed towards Lancelot's direction. A slight lump formed in her throat as she got near the dark knight. He always seemed so standoff-ish, so agitated. The Lancelot that stood before her now was much more familiar than the Lancelot she saw a few moments earlier, laying below the king. However, even the Lancelot she was familiar with made her nervous to a certain extent.

Lancelot abruptly turned his head to sneak a side-eye glance at Percival. The sudden movement nearly made the cat jump, though she held her composure. She glanced back towards where Arthur had been standing only to see that the king was now long gone – most likely having taken off in a blur to whatever activity required his attention next. Percival sighed and turned back towards Lancelot.

"I apologize for my interruption of your duel—"

"Never mention what you saw here," Lancelot interjected bluntly. He slowly turned to face the feline head-on, his arms still crossed and his stance as menacing as usual. His voice was cold and sharp. "I do not appreciate you spying on my activities. If you ever require my attention again, then come to me immediately rather than waiting around."

His words stung Percival slightly, and she was tempted to justify her actions by explaining how there was no reasonable way she could have interrupted their fight due to the speed at which they were moving and that she was not intending on spying. However, she decided to hold her tongue and merely hummed to show her recognition of the other's request. She still was not sure what to make out of what she saw. She had known Lancelot for years now, and she had known that he was very close to the king due to his position as his personal guard, yet she had never seen him show such open concern and playfulness with another person before. And the fact that Lancelot is becoming so hostile towards her now only strengthened her curiosity in what exactly she had witnessed. Though, she knew now was not the time to explore her curiosities.

"Again, I apologize," Percival repeated. "Now, if we may, I have some matters I need to discuss with you …"

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

By this point in Percival's story, the walking duo had made their way relatively far into the palace. They had paced down the hallway and through two more rooms until they reached their current location, which appeared to be some sort of library that was tucked away neatly in the center of the building. Sonic tried not to get distracted by all the sights and elaborate decorations he was passing, though he caught himself drifting his attention away from Percival's tale several times by accident.

"I never did mention what I saw that day again," Percival concluded, causing Sonic to snap out of whatever trance he was in and return his attention to the cat. "The only reason I mention it now is to help you gain a better understanding of what is happening with Sir Lancelot. And, because, well …" Percival's words drifted off as she glanced around the room, searching for her next words carefully. "Since you and King Arthur are so similar, I supposed it was only fair to give you the proper information about how Sir Lancelot may act towards you. I can only imagine how odd it must be for him to see the face of a person he had such an secretive bond with, only to realize that person is not who he thought they were but rather a completely different individual. I know it is still quite challenging for me to avoid calling you 'Arthur' or 'Your Majesty' whenever I speak with you." Percival smiled lightly, taking amusement in her own comment.

Sonic exhaled. "Trust me, I know how you feel," he responded. He folded his arms behind his head as he continued walking, his eyes pointed towards the ceiling. It really was weird for him to see all these familiar faces but constantly having to remind himself that they were not who he thought they were. There were multiple times where he nearly slipped up at called Percival "Blaze" or Gawain "Knuckles". It was just so hard to remember, especially when their personalities were so similar. As for Lancelot, he too was quite similar to his counterpart Shadow. Both were secretive, grumpy, and hard-to-read. But they both were also skilled fighters and probably some of the only people who could compete with Sonic in terms of speed.

Though, Sonic supposed that the similarities between his Shadow and this Lancelot only made the story Percival just told him even harder for him to fully grasp. Shadow and Sonic had competed against each other constantly. From the moment they met, they were fighting. Even after Shadow helped save the world and joined the good side, the two would still bicker and find various ways to try and outdo each other. Yet, never once had Shadow showed genuine concern for the blue hedgehog the way Lancelot had with Arthur. Shadow had punched Sonic to the ground, kicked him into trees, and even blasted him with Chaos Spears, and never showed a hint of remorse for any of it. Lancelot, on the other hand, merely thought that he had hurt Arthur's knee and instantly dropped his guard just to make sure he was okay. It simply did not make sense to Sonic. Perhaps it was because Arthur was a king and Lancelot had vowed to protect him? Shadow seemed like the type of hedgehog who took his vows seriously, Sonic could only assume that Lancelot would be the same way. Then again, that still did not account for why Lancelot seemed so playful while dueling with Arthur … Heck, Sonic could not think of a single time Shadow showed genuine interest in any of his jokes or pranks.

Sonic shook his head free of his thoughts. "I should go speak to him," he blurted out. Percival widened her eyes in surprise.

"But, Sir Sonic, do you not think that it is best to give him some space right now?"

"Like you said, Percy, it is probably weird for him to see my face and know that I'm not the blue hedgehog he remembers. It's only extra hard on him to know that the real blue hedgehog he's searching for is still nowhere to be found and we are only now starting to figure out what happened to him. I think I should at least try to, I dunno, talk to him about it …" Sonic crossed his arms in front of his chest, thinking through his own words. He could not explain why exactly, but he really did feel like he needed to do something for Lancelot. If the knight cared for Arthur as much as Percival seems to think he did, then Sonic felt like he was somewhat responsible to ease the pain that Lancelot was going through just a bit. After all, Arthur was his counterpart, so they are practically the same person. Besides, Sonic always felt compelled to cheer up a friend in need.

Percival examined the hedgehog's face as he spoke, then sighed. "If you insist, though I cannot guarantee Sir Lancelot will be in the mood to speak with anybody—"

"You mention me?" A low and flat voice emerged from behind the pair. Both Sonic and Percival leaped into the air as they twisted around to face the dark hedgehog who was standing behind them. Percival even let out a small yelp prior to swiftly recomposing herself. Sonic groaned as his spines twitched in frustration. He had not even heard Lancelot approach them …

"Um," Percival started, coughing into her closed fist to both clear her throat and calm her thoughts. "We were just speaking about perhaps finding you, since you had left the meeting area so suddenly."

Lancelot's visor was down, though even below the metal cover, Sonic could tell that he was examining both of their faces. "I apologize for my absence then," he eventually replied. "I left to help clear my mind, I did not mean to cause any interference in the conversation."

Sonic hummed and bit his lip, not sure if he fully believed Lancelot, though he did not say anything. Percival, on the other hand, nodded eagerly to accept his excuse.

"Of course," she responded quickly. "Though, now that you are back, is it perhaps alright that we all return to the meeting room? I imagine that the others are becoming curious of our absence."

"You may go ahead, I have some words I would like to discuss with Sir Sonic," Lancelot stated blandly, waving his hand towards the library door in order to motion the cat away. Percival blinked in surprise, though silently complied and took a few steps away from the hedgehogs. She peaked back over her shoulder before exiting the room completely. Lancelot watched as she left before returning his attention to Sonic.

"I see you have been working on your social graces," Sonic added sarcastically as he also watched as Percival left. Lancelot huffed in response.

"You said that she was innocent," Lancelot stated dryly. Sonic raised his eye ridge in confusion, not entirely sure what Lancelot was going on about. But, suddenly, the memories of his and Lancelot's conversation on the balcony yesterday came flooding back into his mind. He was speaking about Merlina. This time, Sonic huffed in annoyance. Lancelot really needed to work on his conversational transition skills.

"I never said Merlina was completely innocent, I said that you didn't know that she wasn't innocent and that we should give people second chances," Sonic responded, his eyes narrowing as he tried to read Lancelot from under his visor. The black hedgehog remained still like a statue, however, with his voice staying equally as emotionless.

"Though now we do know, she has confessed it herself."

"She confessed that she knew more about Arthur's disappearance than she originally let on. But, she didn't kidnap him or trap him somewhere, which is what you guys were accusing her of. What she did was wrong, I'm not denying that. Though I don't see how this changes anything about her deserving a second chance to try and make up for her past mistakes." Sonic spoke confidently and stared Lancelot directly at eye level. The knight's visor was really beginning to annoy him now, and he was partially tempted to reach over and knock it off his head.

"Why are you so adamant about defending her?" Lancelot retorted, a hint of anger flashing through his previously neutral tone. "She told you she knew nothing of the king's whereabouts, and that was revealed to be untrue. Now she tells you that she attempted to attack the king, forcing him into a position where he had no choice but to perform a risky Arcane Control. Yet, you still hold so much trust in her and are still so determined to help her?"

Sonic raised his arms defensively. "Hey, I was angry too when I first found out that she lied. And I already said that what she did wasn't right. The thing is that I know there's good in Merlina. She made mistakes – she made big mistakes – but, hey, we all mess up every now and then. But, she thought what she was doing was right and she wanted to protect her loved ones. She's good on the inside, and I think the goodness in everybody is worth defending." Sonic raised an eye ridge, and re-crossed his arms over his chest. "Besides, I thought you said you understood why I forgave her yesterday."

Lancelot froze, though is posture never changed. He seemed to be examining the words Sonic said very carefully, for a moment leading Sonic to believe that he was actually beginning to break through to the knight. But, alas, Lancelot seemed to have more argument left in him.

"Yesterday I told you that I understood why you wanted to be compassionate towards her because it was in your nature to do so. However, circumstances have changed. You cannot expect me to continue believing in this wizard despite her deceptions and her direct involvement in King Arthur's disappearance. You say that there is good in her, though I fail to see where you find it, given her record of manipulating others to get her way. How can we be sure that she merely meant to paralyze the king with her spell, perhaps she meant to kill him and simply is not telling us the full truth? Maybe she purposefully distorted his Arcane Control to banish him somewhere far away? We cannot know with her, she is a chronic liar." Lancelot was able to regain his composure by the end of his speech. He took a deep breath, as if letting out tension that Sonic had not even noticed had been building up in his opponent.

Sonic clenched his teeth together to avoid biting his lip once more. He narrowed his eyes as he glared at Lancelot. "I see the good in her in the same place Arthur saw the good in you," the blue hedgehog responded slowly. Lancelot's ears sprung upwards and his mouth opened slightly, though Sonic cut him off. "I know about you, Lance. You don't have the cleanest track record either. But, Arthur gave you a second chance – he knew there was good in you somewhere. Why can't you understand that and give Merlina the same chance?"

Instantly, Lancelot's stoic stature fell. The knight bent his ears backwards and even with the visor in the way, Sonic could tell that an expression of initial surprise and later irritation took over his face. Sonic attempted to add onto his response, though before he could get another word out Lancelot gripped him tightly by the upper arm and pulled him closer. Sonic growled as he felt the painful grasp on his arm and as the breath of the other hedgehog touched his muzzle.

"Listen," Lancelot's voice was barely a whisper, though full of raw anger. "Do not speak of my past as if you know anything of it. I care not what Percival or any of the others told you, it is neither yours nor their business what chances I have been given in life."

Though Lancelot was practically snarling in Sonic's face, the blue hero remained rather unphased by his comments. Sonic has faced building-sized robots, alien warlords, and even supernatural beings with god-like powers. It would take more than one angry hedgehog to intimidate him. Still, Sonic could feel his patience quickly drying up, which was always in a short supply anyway. Sonic shoved Lancelot's chest aggressively, successfully creating a little more distance between the two, even though Lancelot never released his arm.

"Get as angry with me as you want, but you admitted it yourself last night. You said that Arthur would have forgiven Merlina too because he had forgiven far worse than her. You were talking about yourself when you said that, weren't you?" Sonic gave a taunting grin as he glared Lancelot directly in the eye. His arm was beginning to bruise under Lancelot's grip, though he tried to hide the pain from leaking into his expression.

Lancelot narrowed his own eyes as he stared down the hedgehog that was merely a handful of inches away. Not another word was spoken for a long while, though both hedgehogs could hear the other breathe deeply and loudly. Suddenly, Lancelot let go of Sonic and took a step back.

Sonic instantly began to rub his arm, feeling the soreness shoot up and down the limb as the blood was finally able to pump down to his fingers again. Lancelot watched the blue hero closely, never removing his eyes from the other even as he lifted his visor. Sonic caught a glimpse of Lancelot's crimson eyes and shot another smile at Lancelot, though this one was much more friendly and welcoming.

"You do not know anything about me, hedgehog," Lancelot eventually stated. Though there were still traces of anger in his voice, he was considerably more calm now than he was before. "Though, you are correct about one thing. I do have a rather … shady past. And I was given a second chance that I most likely did not deserve."

Sonic rolled his shoulders, giving his body permission to relax itself. His friendly smile lightened into a soft grin. "That's where you're wrong, Lance," he added, earning a perplexed glare from the knight. "You did deserve a second chance, as should everybody who is willing to improve themselves and make up for their past mistakes. It is only the people who have completely lost themselves to the darkness that need to be truly taken down. But, if there's still hope that they can turn themselves around, then I think there's nobody who wouldn't be deserving of another try."

Now that Lancelot's visor was raised, Sonic could clearly see his eyes as they steadily widened before returning to their regular size. Lancelot had his lips sealed shut, though Sonic felt as if there was something the other wanted to say. Instead of words, however, Lancelot must have finally settled on a much smaller gesture – a smile. Not a smirk or an amused grin, but a small and genuine smile.

"I suppose …" was all that Lancelot added, his smiling quickly fading away back into his neutral default expression. Regardless, that small sliver of approval was enough to send Sonic over the moon. For once, Sonic actually felt like he was getting through to the darker hedgehog. And, more importantly, he felt like he had avoided a grave downfall had Lancelot taken his anger out on Merlina instead of him.

Sonic chuckled, rubbing his finger under his nose. "Now that that's settled, I have one final question for you!"

Lancelot cocked his head.

"Do you want to race? First back to the meeting room is officially the fastest thing in Camelot!" Sonic was beaming from ear and ear and he crouched down, preparing to blast off at any second.

Lancelot snorted, eyeing Sonic suspiciously.

"Fine, though I should warn you" – Lancelot grew a devilish grin – "the Ultimate Knight has never lost a race."


	6. One Way Home

It was a close call.

Though, just barely, Sonic's foot entered the doorway before Lancelot's. The victorious hedgehog skidded to a halt, nearly hitting into the table though somehow managing to jump to the side just in time. He turned on his heels to face the black knight who came to a stop next to him a mere millisecond later.

"Hmph, never lost a race, huh? Well, I guess there's a first time for everything!" Sonic gloated, rubbing his nose with his finger. He lifted his head up in pride though kept his eyes half-open in order to observe Lancelot's reaction.

The knight huffed and crossed his arms. "You only defeated me because you cheated. I thought we were testing our speed, not our ability to slam our opponent into the wall," Lancelot said, straining his words as he spoke through gritted teeth. Despite his menacing appearance however, Sonic could detect a trace of playfulness under it all.

Sonic put his hands on his hips. "Don't be a drama queen! I hardly touched you, it's not my fault you lost your balance!"

The bickering duo were soon interrupted by the sound of a loud cough. Both converted their attention to the pink hedgehog standing at the front of the room, who soon moved her closed fist away from her mouth and cupped her hands by her chest again.

"Thank you," Nimue spoke gently. "Now, if I may have your attention," she bowed her head slightly as a polite gesture before her voice boomed out with a newly-found demand that Sonic had not expected from her. "Merlina and I have been conversing while you all were preoccupied, and I believe we have made some significant discoveries."

Sonic shifted his gaze to Merlina, who was standing right next to Nimue with a nervous smile on her lips. She made eye contact with Sonic and he could tell that she tried to hide her nerves by forcing an even brighter smile. Sonic twitched his ear. Something was up, he only could hope that it was good news.

"Sonic," Nimue continued, directing everybody's attention towards said hedgehog. Gawain and Caliburn were still near each other from their earlier discussion and Percival was now leaning alone against the back wall. They all seemed to be equally as intrigued by what Merlina and Nimue had planned, leaving Sonic to believe that the two females had been waiting for him and Lancelot to return to tell of their discussion.

"Yes?" the hedgehog responded rather impatiently. He relaxed his hands which were still on his hips and began to tap his fingers against his side.

Nimue smiled, the earlier command in her voice becoming slightly less forceful. "How would you feel about returning to your own world by the end of today?"

Sonic's breath stopped. The question caught him so off guard that for once he fell dead silently. Thankfully, he did not need to say anything for the room rapidly filled with the reactions of everybody else.

"My Lady! What are you saying?" Caliburn hollered, hopping aggressively as he spoke. "We need Sir Sonic here to lead the kingdom until we find King Arthur!"

"And what of the missing Arcane Emerald? And the ever-approaching darkness?" Gawain shouted soon after, slamming his hands on the table, causing nearly everybody to jump. "Do we not need Sir Sonic for these tasks?"

"I trust you, my Lady, but I must agree – this hardly seems like the appropriate time for Sir Sonic to depart from us!" Percival added. She sounded equally as surprised as the others, though unlike them, her tone seemed more worried rather than angered.

Lancelot was the next one to open his mouth, though he quickly closed it before speaking a word. Though Sonic only caught Lancelot's expression out of the corner of his eye, he could have sworn that he saw the knight press his lips together tightly as he stared daggers into the pink hedgehog that stood at the other end of the room. The other two knights and the panicked sword, however, continued to shout their concerns and interjections to the point where it would have been worthless for either Lancelot or Sonic to try and share their thoughts anyway.

Nimue waited a moment more for the chaos of the room to settle before raising her hand in order to draw everybody's attention back to her. Her face looked calm and content despite the fact that she had been the victim of aggressive interjections for the last handful of minutes. In fact, one might go as far to say that she looked mildly amused at her companions' various reactions of rage.

"Please, be settled," she finally said, lowering her hand. "I know my question may seem alarming, but please trust that I have my reasons. Now, Sonic" – Nimue turned herself so that she was facing only the hero – "If you may, please share your answer."

Sonic nodded, becoming suddenly aware that all the eyes in the room were peering into him with varying levels of curiosity and concern. The hedgehog gave out a sheepish laugh and rubbed the back of his head, causing his spines to bounce around loosely. Honestly, Sonic had been thinking about his home ever since he landed in Camelot. The blue blur was used to being thrown into wild adventures and having to leave home for days at a time, though he was also used to having his buddies with him wherever he went. To be in a place full of strangers with familiar faces was … odd, to say the least. He would give anything to have Tails or Knuckles or Amy to be here with him. Heck, he would even be content to have Shadow be here with him. After his race with Lancelot, Sonic suddenly became increasingly aware of how much he missed messing around with his own grumpy-hog back home.

But, he knew he had responsibilities here now. And, regardless of how much he missed home, he at least knew it would still be waiting for him once he finished taking care of business here. Not to mention, Sonic knew that the knights and Caliburn would be deeply hurt to hear him say that he wanted to leave them so suddenly and so soon – especially since he was just starting to warm up to some of them.

"To be real with you, ma'am, I would love to go home," Sonic began, shrugging his shoulders. A glimmer sparked in his eyes, but it was soon replaced by a more serious and stern expression. "But, I refuse to step a foot out of this dimension until I know you guys are all going to be okay."

Sonic let a proud smile emerge on his face as he looked at each individual in the room. Percival, Gawain, and Caliburn all had various versions of uneasy smiles as relief came over their form. Lancelot refused to look at the other hedgehog, though even from the side Sonic could see that he had a light grin on his face. Merlina and Nimue, on the other hand, both looked pleased, though their faces made it seem like there was more to tell – as if they were part of some inside joke between the two of them.

Sonic focused on Nimue again and cocked his head, prodding them to explain their odd expressions. Though, before they had the chance, he quickly added in a few more words. "You guys are my friends now, and I never leave friends who are in need."

Nimue giggled, earning a raised eye ridge from Sonic. Merlina held her hands together and shot a wider smile at Sonic, showing her approval of his short speech.

"I appreciate your friendship dearly, Sir Knight of the Wind," Nimue soon replied, emphasizing her sincerity by bowing her head slightly. "Forgive me for finding your answer amusing however, it is simply because Merlina and I have perhaps discovered that you might need to go home in order to help save Camelot!"

"Huh?" "What do you mean?" "Did I hear you correctly?" "How can that be?"

Questions and exclamations polluted the air, making it hard to decipher who was saying what exactly. Sonic was the only one to remain silent as he folded his ears back and scrunched his face to highlight his puzzlement.

"How do you figure that, ladies?" He questioned, crossing his arms over his chest as he thought.

Before Nimue could respond, Merlina took a step forward and cleared her throat. She looked back up at Sonic and smiled.

Merlina spoke slowly, though there was a wave of confidence and contentment in her voice that actually made Sonic happy to hear. It was much better than her previous fragile and depressed attitude. "When Sir Percival mentioned that we would need to learn more about the Arcane Emeralds in order to fully understand what happened to the true King Arthur, it led to Nimue and I both to begin putting certain pieces of this puzzle together …"

"One thing that has been perplexing me from the beginning is, how exactly did Merlina manage to call Sir Sonic to our world?" Nimue continued as soon as Merlina's voice drifted off. "I have never doubted Merlina's talents as a powerful wizard, but calling a being from an alternate dimension with little preparation? That is almost unheard of in the magical world. And how could Merlina have possibly known which dimension she was pulling from or who the universe would send to her?"

Sonic's eyes shifted between the two magical females at the front of the room, attempting to follow all the information they were spewing at him. Their questions did make sense … How did Merlina call him here anyway? He never really asked, he was too distracted by the illusionary Black Knight and his underworld army at the time. He wondered if the universe just knew that he was the hero to call in dire situations? Or perhaps he was being a bit vain for thinking he was that special in the grand scheme of things. Still, it did seem like he was needed here. Sonic had a hard time imagining anybody else taking out an entire army of underworld demons and stopping Merlina after she received the scabbard.

"Truthfully, even I was perplexed by my own abilities to call you here," Merlina added. "During my studies, I learned many spells that involve calling beings from distant lands or bringing aid to oneself in a time of need, though every such spell required one essential ingredient – arcane energy. Arcane energy is the magical aura that surrounds this whole kingdom. It powers all of my magic, and every spell I use calls upon this energy in order to work. The spell I used to call you here, Sir Sonic, is no exception. I utilized arcane energy in order to open the portal, repeated the enchanted words I had studied long ago, and somehow the universe knew to bring you to me."

Merlina paused for a minute, realizing that she had been speaking rather quickly. A light blush came to her cheeks and she swiftly added, "Did that make sense?"

Sonic hummed, processing all the information in his mind. "I think I got it," he replied, though his voice did not sound as certain. "I'm assuming it's just like the chaos energy we have back on my world. It's this all-powerful energy that certain people can tap into in order to use special abilities. I normally need a Chaos Emerald in order to use it, but once I get an emerald, I'm able to teleport and super-charge my moves." Sonic had closed his eyes as he spoke, focusing on his own reasoning. Though, he suddenly opened them in order to look back at Merlina, who looked somewhat lost at what the hedgehog was saying. Regardless, she nodded as if she agreed. Sonic sighed before continuing. "I know a guy—urm, let's call him a friend—named Shadow who can tap into chaos energy without an emerald. So, I'm guessing what Merlina is doing with her magic is similar to what Shadow can do with his chaos abilities – well, sorta at least."

Sonic nodded at his own explanation. At this point, he was mostly talking in order to organize his thoughts in his own mind since he already knew that nobody else in the room could possibly follow what he was saying. The one thing that still confused Sonic is that, if this arcane energy is like chaos energy, then how come Merlina's and Shadow's abilities were so different? Shadow certainly has never opened up portals to distant dimensions or created whirlwinds or done anything that Merlina appears to be able to do. Though maybe it had to do with that staff Merlina always carries around? Or perhaps arcane energy and chaos energy do have some differences? After all, they do feel different to be around.

"I do not know much about this chaos energy you speak of," Nimue eventually spoke up, breaking Sonic away from his thoughts. "Though I suppose it does sound similar to what we are speaking of. Now, the interesting thing about this riddle is, if Merlina can only use magic in areas where there is arcane energy, then how did she manage to open a portal in your world in order to bring you here Sir Sonic? From my understanding, there are no Arcane Emeralds nor arcane energy in your world, and this chaos energy you speak of seems to operate independently of the Arcane Emeralds, so I do not believe that they are closely enough related in order to be used interchangeably in this way."

Merlina pipped in once again, excitement growing in her voice as she become evidently more prideful in her discovery. "I was shocked when Nimue originally brought this to my attention, though she is correct! The only way I could have opened up a portal that connects your world and ours is if there was arcane energy on both sides! That means, there must be some arcane energy in your world! The question then became: how? Nimue taught me that the Arcane Emeralds were the source of all arcane energy. So, how could there be arcane energy in your world if all the Arcane Emeralds are in our world?"

"Unless …" Nimue's grin faded until it was nothing more than a light smile, her tone soft yet direct. "Not all the Arcane Emeralds are in our world after all."

For the third time this conversation, a wave of shock swept over the group. However, unlike the previous two times, there was no a single word said. There were grunts of confusion and hums of concern, though no solid syllable formed. Everybody waited patiently for Nimue to specify what she meant, though they all quietly reached the same conclusion already.

"You mean the last Arcane Emerald is in my dimension?" Sonic bluntly asked, echoing the words in everybody's minds. Nimue merely nodded in response, the last remains of her smile fading away upon seeing the distrust on Sonic's face.

"Okay, but how is that possible?" Sonic continued. He furrowed his brow and strained his mouth to the side.

There was a brief moment of silence as Merlina and Nimue exchanged glances. It was clear that they too were somewhat perplexed by the same question, and had yet to reach a full answer.

"At the moment, we believe that King Arthur's faulty Arcane Control may have caused this," Nimue answered, though uncertainty was clear in her voice. "Since he was interrupted in the middle of using the Arcane Emerald, it is possible that the emerald he was using accidentally transported itself to a neighboring dimension – in this case, your dimension."

"Would that mean King Arthur is in Sir Sonic's world as well?"

Before Sonic even had the opportunity to open his mouth, Lancelot had stepped forward and posed his question. The suddenness of his movements caught Sonic off guard and the blue hedgehog found himself jumping in surprise and clutching his chest. The question itself, however, caught the attention of both Percival and Gawain, who had been silently listening thus far. They gazed intently at Lancelot and then turned to Nimue. Nimue pressed her lips together and lowered her head slowly.

"Unfortunately, I cannot answer that with any certainty. It would be my best guess that the king would be wherever the last Arcane Emerald is, though to be quite honest, we are not exactly sure where the emerald is either. Our idea that it is in Sir Sonic's dimension is purely based on theory, and can very well be incorrect altogether." As Nimue spoke, each of the knights lowered their shoulders and seemed to lose energy by the second. Even Caliburn, who had been unusually quiet this conversation, began to float closer to the floor as if the news was draining him of his powers. Lancelot stepped back to his place next to Sonic. Sonic thought he heard a low sigh escape from the hedgehog, though he could not be certain.

After only a moment of hesitation, Sonic stealthily extended his arm and rested his hand on Lancelot's shoulder. Nobody else in the room appeared to notice, as all their attention was focused on the female duo at the front of the room. Sonic felt Lancelot flinch and for a moment he was afraid that the knight would brush his hand away. But, he did not. Sonic squeezed the shoulder piece of Lancelot's armor. His gesture silently conveying his message.

'It will be okay, we'll find him.'

Though Sonic believed in this message, however, he had to admit that he had his doubts about all of this as well. If there was an Arcane Emerald in his dimension, then would not he have known about it before? Two of the greatest treasure hunters Sonic has ever known lived in his dimension, so certainly either Rouge or Knuckles would have found any supernatural gem hiding in their world. Not to mention Shadow, who seemed to have a sense for any sort of disturbance in the chaos field. It seemed unlikely that a magical gem could slip into his world without anybody noticing. And everybody definitely would have noticed if there was a second Sonic running around! There was no way Arthur the Hedgehog and his emerald could have been in Sonic's dimension without somebody knowing about it … right?

Merlina clapped her hands together to make a small burst of noise in order to draw everybody's eyes towards her. "I know this situation seems bad, though we must keep our heads up!" She spoke with power behind her voice. Even with his doubts, Sonic had to smile at the sight of her. Merlina had grown so much over these short two days. She could barely make eye contact with the knights yesterday, and now here she was acting like their leader. "If there is any hope that the king is in Sir Sonic's home world, then we must search for him there! This is no time to act like the situation is hopeless, we all must still have some fight left in us!"

Sonic gave Merlina a thumbs up, removing his hand from Lancelot's shoulder in the process. The knight made no reaction to show that he noticed, except for a slight shrug of his shoulders.

Sonic liked seeing Merlina this energetic and confident. He attempted to bury his concerns in the back of his mind. Merlina believed in this plan, and so did Nimue it seemed, and it looked like this was the best chance they got. Plus, it gave Sonic a reason to go home sooner without feeling like he was abandoning his friends in need. If he could save this world while also being with his buddies back home? That was the ultimate win-win situation for him.

And thus, it was settled. Or, at least, it was settled between Nimue, Merlina, and Sonic. The knights each held their own reservations and even Caliburn seemed rather untrusting of the conclusions the two magical females had reached. Lancelot, by far, was the most open about his hesitations involving this ordeal. Though he hardly spoke a word, as was his usual, his facial expressions and occasional twitching spoke volumes louder than any voice.

Nimue stepped forward, clasping her hands together tightly. "I am glad that these matters have been settled. I believe it will be best if we waste no time in preparing for your departure. Remember, the darkness grows in the forest every day. We must act hastily." Nimue paused for a moment before turning to face the young wizard that stood by her. "Merlina, how long do you believe it will take to prepare the portal?"

Merlina tapped her staff on the ground, beaming with pride. "It shall take no time at all! I am prepared to open the gate whenever you see fit."

Nimue flashed a friendly smile at Merlina before turning to Sonic. "And you, Sir Sonic? Are you prepared to depart from Camelot? I apologize that it is on such a short notice, though I am afraid that we have little time to lose. The darkness grows in the forest every moment we waste."

Sonic nodded. He knew the severity of the situation, though the seriousness of Nimue's face only highlighted this fact in his mind. It would be sad for him to leave his new friends, especially when he was just beginning to adjust to some of them. He had hoped to be around to see Merlina make amends with the knights and to see Lancelot lighten up for once. Though, he supposed this was the burden of being a hero. When you have to go, you have to go. Besides, saving King Arthur would by far be the best thing for this kingdom right now. Heck, if he did not find that last Arcane Emerald, there not might be a kingdom anymore.

Sonic gave Nimue a thumbs up. "I'm always ready!"

"Then, let us head over to the hill on the outskirts of town," Nimue responded, there was a bittersweet tone to her voice. "I have one more gift to give to you there before we part ways."

"I will meet you all there," Merlina quickly added, raising her staff into the air. "I must fetch some materials first." Without waiting for a response, she slammed her staff onto the ground, instantly sending whirls of wind into the air from the base of the staff. Soon her form was hidden behind a tornado of tannish-grey winds, before the air quickly cleared to reveal that she had vanished.

Nimue was the next to go, as she vanished herself in a wave of blue mist, promising that she would meet the others on the hill. Everybody else then was left to walk.

The walk to the hill was awkward, to put it lightly. Sonic had decided to walk at a normal pace for once, out of respect for his companions who would never be able to keep up otherwise. However, even as they all walked together, Sonic was mostly consumed in his own mind, as his eyes wandered across the scenery. It was hard to believe that it was only two or three days ago that he was running around every little alleyway of this village – smashing bad guys and rescuing villagers. It seemed like he had been here so much longer, though perhaps that was the illusion of time. Time always seemed to move differently in our minds than it does in reality. He saw a few villagers walk out of their homes in order to view the passing party from their balconies. He shot them a smirk and waved, which earned a few excited squeals and eager waving in return. Sonic wished that he had more time to explore this world, preferably during a time when he was not distracted by saving the world. It seemed so beautiful here and the villagers seemed rather friendly now that they were no longer living in fear. It was odd, Sonic was looking forward to going home – he truly was – but a part of him was telling him to stay just a little longer. The blue hero normally was not the sentimental type, but having to say goodbye to new friends and fun adventures was putting a downer on his mood.

Thinking of new friends, Sonic allowed his focus to return to the people who walked beside him. Nimue and Merlina had yet to return from wherever they disappeared to. That left Sonic to walk with Caliburn and the three knights. Caliburn seemed to quickly recover from his earlier shock and was already getting back to business. He had spent the entirety of their walk thus far discussing the future political climate of Camelot with Percival, who seemed equally as engrossed in the discussion. Sonic watched as the duo walked several feet in front of him, and he bent his ears to help him overhear their conversation.

"You are the sacred sword of Caliburn," Percival stated with a mild hint of annoyance in her voice. "It is your task to choose who shall take the throne while the king is away."

"I am well aware of my responsibilities!" the sword replied. If Caliburn had a real face, it most likely would be turning red due to the amount of stress clear in his tone. "I am simply uncertain as to who should rule now that Sir Sonic is leaving us … Nobody else has proved their worth to me. Though, Camelot definitely cannot go without a monarch while we await King Arthur's return."

Sonic folded his ears back and strained his mouth to the side. He knew he was causing more problems for these guys due to his abrupt departure, though he had a hard time feeling guilty - and he was not sure if he was being selfish or not for feeling that way. He had told the knights from the beginning that he had no intentions of staying and being their king, though he did hope that they could find some decent substitute until he was able to get Arthur back. Percival sighed, crossing her arms.

"Then, I suppose we will have to revert to the traditional method. The next highest position in the king's court shall have to rise up and take the king's place until he is capable of returning." The cat lowered her gaze to the ground, closing her eyes. Caliburn went silent for a moment, and Sonic observed the back of their heads, wondering what they were possibly thinking about.

Caliburn hummed, emphasizing his wandering thoughts. He mumbled aloud, "If that is the case, then the next highest position would be the Head Knight of the Round Table—"

"I cannot and will not take the king's place."

Lancelot had been so silent that Sonic had nearly forgotten that the darker knight was walking right beside him. The spines on Sonic's back shot up in surprise before quickly settling down as Sonic regained his composure. For a guy with bright red stripes on his head, he sure was a stealthy fellow …

Percival's ears drooped down as she pressed her fingers against her metallic face-cover. "It would only be for a short while, Sir Lancelot. You would be acting more like a figurehead rather than an actual ki—"

"I have stated my answer and I will not change it," Lancelot interjected bluntly. He sounded monotoned and stern. He stopped walking and stood firmly in place, neither his gaze nor his posture breaking from its sturdy position. Sonic stopped in his tracks as well after moving a few steps in front of Lancelot. He turned to face the hedgehog, trying hard to hide his annoyance. It was only yesterday that Lancelot was giving Sonic a hard time for refusing to take the throne, and the blue hero was becoming very aware of the hypocrisy being displayed here. Sonic crossed his arms and tapped his foot against the ground aggressively.

Caliburn and Percival must have stopped walking as well, for Sonic no longer heard their footsteps. The only noise he heard was Gawain approaching the group as he had been several paces behind them the entire walk thus far. Once the echidna got close enough to sense the tension surrounding the group, he developed a puzzled expression. He rubbed the edge of his helmet with his gloved hand.

"Sir Lancelot—" Percival began, though she quickly cut herself off, accepting that this was going to be a hopeless cause. She lifted her visor so her gold eyes could examine the stubborn hedgehog she spoke to. She exhaled loudly.

"And why should I need to fill the position of king when Sir Sonic was the one selected by the sacred sword Caliburn? Should not the chosen one hold the chosen responsibilities?" Lancelot said flatly. It was hard for Sonic to decide whether Lancelot was being serious or purposefully mocking him, but it made the hero frustrated regardless.

"Um, in case you forgot, I'm going to a different dimension in a few minutes in order to help save your guys' king. So, it would be kinda impossible for me to be the king here while being the hero back in my home world." Sonic's foot only sped up its tapping at he spoke as he tried to pound his irritations out on the dirt. Dust began to fly from the ground and formed small clouds around his feet.

"I am well-aware of that," Lancelot responded, turning his head only slightly so that he was now facing Sonic head-on. "I merely meant to say that it is not my place to take the king's position for I was not chosen for the task. My duty is to protect and serve the king, and that is what I shall do. Until King Arthur is found and safely returned, I will not allow myself to become distracted by outside concerns that are not my responsibility to solve."

Sonic rolled his eyes at the response, though gave no reply. He would normally shoot out a witty comeback at an opportunity like this, though he was not in the mood to reignite his previous arguments with Lancelot. If Lancelot was anything like Shadow – which he has already proven himself to be – then Sonic knew it would be a waste of energy to argue anything with him.

"Caliburn, you seem to be comfortable giving orders. Why do you not fill the king's place while the Knights of the Round Table focus on our duties of preventing the kingdom from being engulfed in darkness?" Gawain butted in, though Sonic doubted the red knight fully understood what was happening still as he continued to look mildly confused.

Caliburn scoffed at the remark and twisted himself so he was facing away from the knights. "I am a sword, a weapon! How am I supposed to run a kingdom? Here, let us not waste time on this arguing. We shall not keep Nimue and Merlina waiting …" Without waiting for a response, the sword began to float forward, though his anger was practically radiating off his shiny surfaces.

The rest of the group followed, all of them absorbed in a tense silence.

By the time they approached the hill, Sonic could see that both Nimue and Merlina were waiting for them at the top. The two seemed engrossed in conversation, but both of them went quiet as the group approached. Merlina took several small leaps towards Sonic and extended her hands to him. In her right palm was a small brown band that almost looked like a watch, though instead of having a clock face, it had a bronze coin with a small spherical opal strapped to the center of it.

"Sir Sonic, I fetched this for your journey! It is a Homebound Band!" Merlina beamed, swiftly grabbing Sonic's wrist with her free hand and sliding the band onto his arm. Sonic pulled his arm away once she was finished and twisted his wrist in order to examine the new decoration. He glanced up at Merlina and whistled in amusement.

"It was designed by my grandfather," Merlina continued. "The opal attached to the band carries a special connection with the Royal Wizard study room in the palace basement. If you press this opal against the bronze coin forcefully enough, the opal will shatter and a portal will be opened to the study" – Merlina lightly tapped her finger against the opal to emphasize her point – "This will allow you to send King Arthur and the Arcane Emerald back to our world once you find them."

Sonic gave Merlina a thumbs up. "Sounds like a snazzy device!"

Merlina nodded. "Though, I must warn you – once the opal is shattered, it can no longer be used. This means you can only open the portal to the study once. I would give you more than one, but I am afraid this is the only one I could find that was still intact …"

"So, in other words, I gotta be careful?" Sonic asked, raising an eye ridge though keeping a playful smile on his face. "Don't worry, Merlina, I got this!"

Merlina clapped her hands together and grinned at the hedgehog. She soon stepped aside as Nimue stepped forward in order to face the hero.

"And here," Nimue began. "Is my gift to you …"

The pink hedgehog lifted her hands from behind her back to reveal what looked like a necklace made out of small stones with one slightly larger stone at the bottom. Nimue raised the necklace over Sonic's head, and Sonic pushed his spines down so she could slip it onto his neck.

"I'm not much of a jewelry guy, but I can dig this," the cobalt hedgehog added playfully as he looked down at the stones resting against his chest. All the stones were various shades of grey and looked completely ordinary, except for the fact that they were exceptionally smooth. There were no rough edges or cuts anywhere, and for a moment Sonic thought that they would make the perfect skipping stones.

Nimue put her hand against her mouth, muffling one of her giggles. "This is no ordinary necklace, dear knight. These are stones from the Lake itself. These stones are said to bring good fortune to whoever carries them. There have even been some rumors that these stones can grant wishes in some cases" – Nimue closed her eyes and grew a somewhat teasing smile – "Though, I will let you discover whether these rumors have any merit or not."

Sonic laughed at the remark. "Thank you, gals! I really appreciate it!" He looked between the two magical females in front of him, pushing his chest out in order to show off the new jewelry he wore.

Merlina stared at Sonic happily for a moment longer before turning to the pink hedgehog next to her.

"Shall I …?"

"Yes, Merlina. If you would please."

Merlina bowed her head and took a large step backwards away from the group. She lifted her staff into the air and hit it against the ground, immediately summoning purple light that carved symbols and patterns into the dirt. The young wizard lowered her head and shut her eyes, murmuring some chants under her breath that Sonic was unable to understand. Nimue took a step away from the wizard and the rest of the party followed her lead. The light continued to draw further and further on the ground, seemingly following invisible lines that had been painted there long ago. In a flash, the light patterns began to shot streams of light up into the air, until Merlina was hidden behind a bright lavender glow. Sonic ended up having to look away in order to protect his eyes from the glare. After several loud noises of wind blowing past his ears and after he could feel the light fade away, the hedgehog returned his gaze to the magic show happening a few yards away. By the time he looked back, he saw that a vertical vortex had formed right behind Merlina. Colors of dark purple and neon violet swirled and danced together around the newly-formed portal. It was gorgeous, though clearly unstable. Flashes of lightning seemed to emerge from its edges as the rip in space spun faster and faster.

Multiple gasps and 'ahh's were heard as Merlina walked to the side and out of the way of her creation. She seemed to be out of breath and looked as if she were to fall over at any moment. She turned to Sonic and flashed him one last smile.

"It is ready … I cannot be sure how long it will remain open, however." Merlina's voice was quiet and exhausted. Sonic gave a firm nod.

Nimue approached Sonic, grabbing his hands into her own and squeezing them tightly. Her sea green eyes pierced into his and Sonic was once again reminded of his energetic friend Amy.

"I apologize that our goodbyes must be rushed," she spoke quickly yet kindly. "It has been a pleasure to know such a noble hero and I wish you many good fortunes on your journeys to come. Please be speedy on your next quest, however, our world depends on it."

Sonic loosened his grip on her hands just enough so that he could pull his right hand up to his face in order to scratch his cheek. "Speed is my forte! I won't let you down, Nimue!" Nimue squeezed his left hand one more time before releasing him.

Instantly, Caliburn bounced over to the hedgehog. Though he spoke with confidence, Sonic could see that the sword was swallowing tears – well, assuming that swords were capable of crying at all, which Sonic honestly was not certain they could.

"It was an honor to be at your service, Sir Knight of the Wind!" Caliburn announced loudly for the entire group to hear. "If you ever find yourself in Camelot, then I would be more than ready to fight at your side once again!"

"It's been fun!" Sonic gave a wink as he replied.

Both Percival and Gawain approached Sonic next, both of whom seemed equally as saddened to Sonic's surprise.

"Make sure you do not fail us!" The echidna spat out rather harshly, lightly hitting his fist against Sonic's arm as he spoke. Though, his tone instantly softened as he tried to prevent his sad smile from becoming too noticeable. "And … take care of yourself too."

Sonic merely laughed at Gawain's goodbye and gave the red knight a pat on the shoulder as a final friendly gesture. He truly was like Knuckles, and Sonic was sure they would have had many more friendly duels had he been allowed to stay longer.

"It was a pleasure to know you, even if just for a short while," Percival stated, gaining Sonic's attention. "I hope we may cross paths again." Unlike Gawain, Percival made no attempt to hide her sadness and disappointment. She extended her hand out to Sonic, and the hedgehog accepted right away and shook it. They exchanged smiles.

"Sir Sonic!" a voice rang out from behind the hedgehog, breaking his focus off of Percival. Sonic turned to see Merlina, who still had yet to regain her breath. Merlina motioned towards the portal, which was spinning even faster now, and the once bright purple swirls now looked darker and more chaotic. Sonic understood the message and took a step closer to the vortex. He turned to lock eyes with Merlina.

Sonic put his hand under Merlina's chin and lifted her head up so that she was looking directly at him. He could feel her head longing to fall to the side as her exhaustion got the best of her, though she kept strong and focused on Sonic.

"Merlina," Sonic said calmly. "Keep your head up, okay? You're a great wizard and an even better friend. Don't let your past keep you from living in the now. Promise?"

Sonic removed his hand from Merlina's face, though the female continued to stare straight at him. She smiled widely and bubbles began to form at the corner of her eyes. She stretched out her hand and took hold of Sonic's.

"I promise …" she said softly, her voice barely above a whisper. "And thank you … for everything."

Merlina squeezed Sonic's hand lightly. She leaned in closer and gave Sonic a gentle kiss on the cheek. Sonic's ears folded back and his face reddened. He allowed a nervous chuckle to escape him as he patted Merlina's shoulder.

"It was no problem …" he added.

Sonic's ears twitched as he heard the sound of somebody clearing their throat beside him. He rotated his head to see Lancelot standing next to him now. Sonic removed his hand from Merlina's and placed both his fists on his hips.

"What? Do you want to give me a goodbye kiss too?" A teasing smirk was planted on Sonic's face. Lancelot merely squinted his eyes, which were now visible to the world as his visor was raised.

"No," Lancelot stated bluntly. "I came to say that I am sorry."

Sonic perked his ears up. This was certainly a surprise. He had expected Lancelot to give him one last scolding before he left, or perhaps to not say goodbye at all. But an apology? That seemed rather unlike him.

"Oh? Don't sweat it, Lance," Sonic responded rather quickly. He honestly was not quite sure what to say.

Lancelot paid no mind to Sonic's response anyway, but rather continued to speak. "I am sorry for this and I hope that you will come to understand my reasonings. This is what I must do."

Sonic scrunched his nose. "What are you— WAAAAHHHH?!"

"LANCELOT! NO!" "What is he doing?!" "Sir Sonic!"

The screams echoed across the hilltop as Sonic's world spun out of control. All he remembered feeling was a sharp pain in his chest as if somebody tackled him backwards. And then, everything was purple and spinning and cloudy and confusing. It felt like he was floating freely, but there was some force pushing him further and further into the violet pit of nothingness. He was screaming, though he could hardly hear himself.

It only took him a second to realize what was happening.

He was being transported back home. Though he was not traveling alone.


	7. Home, Sweet Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a special note on this chapter :)
> 
> I wrote this chapter after a long hiatus on FFN. So, you might notice that my writing style will change slightly from here on out. Sorry about that!
> 
> xx Whisper

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The shrieks seemed to pierce through the air like a bullet. Birds and squirrels darted every which way, attempting to escape the invisible foe. A flash of light covered the landscape as a spiraling vortex appeared in the sky, swiftly spitting out two figures before twisting into nonexistence.

The first figure continued with its gut-wrenching scream, appearing only as a gust of blue to the naked eye. However, its panic become less and less severe as it approached the ground. In a solid and swift movement, the blue figure turned itself around and landed itself on the ground with precision. Grass and leaves were shot into the air every which way at the impact of the fall, but in the middle of the distress was Sonic, crouched down and steady.

He landed safely.

Unfortunately, he forgot to look up.

Within a second of Sonic's landing, the second, darker figure torpedoed downward until the inevitable happened. A painful scream shot through the scenery, finally scaring away any animal brave enough to stay around for this long. The once proud and standing Sonic was now buried facedown into the dirt under the weight of his unwelcomed travel partner. Sir Lancelot, on the other hand, seemed unscathed by the fall after somehow managing to land in a perfect crouching position himself on top of the other hedgehog.

"I had expected you to move away from the landing site," the knight added plainly, sounding more annoyed than concerned at the other's condition. Without further comment, Lancelot stepped off of the other and stretched out a hand of assistance.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kick you all the way back to Camelot," Sonic groaned, though his words were so muddled by the dirt stuck to his tongue that it's questionable whether Lancelot could understand him.

Sonic pushed himself upwards with one fluid movement and quickly shook all the dirt off his fur like a dog shaking off water. His quills were a mess and a stubborn blade of grass clung to his cheek, though despite that, the blue hero seemed miraculously unharmed.

Lancelot glanced the other up and down, though it was unclear to Sonic whether Lancelot was doing so because he was scanning Sonic for injuries or because he was judging whether Sonic was going to make good on his threat to kick him home.

Which, Lancelot had good reason to suspect that Sonic might go through with his threat, because the cobalt speedster was mad. Not the playfully irritated or the impatiently frustrated kind of mad, but the full-on, face turning red, hands clenched into fists, kind of mad. Sonic's ears twitched and his nose scrunched. Mobians would joke that Sonic is a hot-head, and perhaps sometimes the hero could be, but in reality it took a lot to bring out this kind of genuine anger in him. But that stunt Lancelot pulled back in Camelot? That was enough to set him over the edge.

Lancelot cleared his throat with a heavy gulp and braced himself in front of his angered companion. "I apologize for my actions. Though, I would suspect that you understand—"

"No, I really don't understand!" Sonic retorted. His foot began to beat on the ground, sending cascades of dirt flying every which way, as the hedgehog attempted to release his stored up anger. "What? You figured the situation wasn't complicated enough? Thought we needed some more interdimensional drama to keep things interesting?"

Sonic snorted heavily and turned his head to the side so he was no longer facing Lancelot. Not that it would have mattered if he had faced Lancelot, for the knight's stupid visor was down once again and his emotions were once again shielded. Though Sonic was angry, his anger did seem to decrease with every speedy tap of his foot. It got to the point where he was able to get his hands to relax and removed them from their tight fists. What Lancelot did was inconvenient and uncalled for, but it wasn't world-shattering. The hedgehog had to remind himself to take deep breaths. A relaxation technique he was taught by his friend, Amy Rose.

Lancelot remained silent for a moment. Originally Sonic thought it was because the knight didn't know what to say in response to Sonic's outburst. Though, it quickly became clear that Lancelot was merely waiting for the other to calm down some before providing his predetermined answer.

"If the king is in this dimension, then I need to be here as well," Lancelot stated. "I could not possibly put the life and safety of King Arthur in the hands of a person I only met a few days ago. It would drive me to insanity to be in Camelot while waiting for somebody else to save the king." Lancelot spoke rather matter-of-factly, yet Sonic could tell there were secret feelings hidden behind each sentence.

Sonic was tempted to respond with a number of replies. 'So, you don't trust me to save Arthur on my own?' and 'You don't always have to be the frontlines, there were ways you could have helped the other knights and Nimue back in Camelot' were the two that first came to mind, but Sonic restrained himself from saying either. He knew the answer to both. Of course Lancelot did not trust him. Sonic wished that he would, and it frustrated the hero that he did not. But, it was obvious that Lancelot was not the trusting type. And Sonic knew that this was not about being on the frontlines or gaining attention for Lancelot. Sonic had only gotten a glimpse at Lancelot and Arthur's relationship from what Percival and the others had shared with him, yet he could tell that Lancelot's desire to save Arthur was not just hero work to the knight. It would be as if Tails had gone missing. Sonic would be willing to search the ends of the world to rescue his best friend if that's what it took, and there was no way he would trust another person to find Tails for him. He could only guess that it was similar to what Lancelot was going through.

"Fine," Sonic eventually said. Lancelot's ears seemed to twitch in surprise at the sudden change in Sonic's attitude. Sonic nodded and continued, "I still think you should have waited in Camelot. But, you're here now and we won't be able to send you home until we find Arthur." Sonic shrugged his shoulders and glanced up at the sky where the vortex was only moments before. The endless blue abyss showed no signs of the previous dimensional hole. Two birds flew pass overhead.

Lancelot nodded affirmatively. "Indeed. And I would suggest we waste no time starting our search. We must make a plan of action now. I believe that it would be best to begin by—"

Sonic waved his hand in the air, dismissing Lancelot's speech from the start and causing the knight to lose the words right out of his mouth.

"Hold up there, buddy," Sonic began. The hedgehog picked at the grass blade that had clung to his cheek up until this point, finally allowing it to float to the ground. Surprisingly, Sonic seemed to have completely regained his composure and chill attitude despite his previous burst of anger. Though, perhaps it was not so surprising given that Sonic had finally recalled the truth about where he was – he was back on Mobius! After several days of separation and worry, the hero was back on his home turf! And he knew exactly what he wanted to do first.

"I'm not doing anything else before I get to my city in order to check in on my friends," Sonic added. He could picture the whole crew now – Amy, Tails, Knuckles, Cream, and so on. He still was not sure how much time had passed on Mobius, if it was the same as the time passed in Camelot or not. He had no idea if his friends had been looking for him or if Eggman had planned any schemes while he was away. Sonic was finally back in the same reality as his friends. There was no way that he could do anything else before at least seeing them – if not only to make sure that they were okay.

The knight, however, seemed less than amused. Lancelot grunted and crossed his arms above his metal chest plate. "I do hope you are jesting with me, Sir Sonic," Lancelot responded grudgingly. "Must I remind you that my home is on the verge of being consumed by darkness and that my king is in possibly perilous danger? Certainly your social engagements can wait." Lancelot tried to force a blunt and to-the-point tone, though his irritation burned into his words nonetheless.

"I didn't forget," Sonic responded quickly, frowning at the sound of Lancelot's aggression. "My friends have helped me save the world more than a few times. If anything, talking to them would be the best place to start." Sonic shrugged and took a few paces away from Lancelot, removing himself from the crater that the two generated from their fall. "I don't know. Maybe they've heard rumors of a second Sonic running around somewhere? Or maybe they have encountered something to do with this arcane energy stuff? If anybody on this planet knows anything, it would be them."

Sonic's back was turned to the knight by this point as he continued to walk away, though he heard Lancelot give a low hum as if he were thinking carefully.

"It's a better plan than randomly running around Mobius until we find something," Sonic added. He quickly flicked himself around on his heels until he was facing Lancelot once again. He shot a smirk at his companion. "Besides, I won't take no for an answer!"

Lancelot sighed, verbally admitted that he knew the pointlessness in arguing with Sonic further. Sonic was going to see his friends, regardless of what Mr. Grumpy Fur thought about it. To be fair, however, Sonic did truly believe that talking to his buddies would be the best place to start on this mission. Anytime anything strange happens in Mobius, it always finds a way to cross the radar of at least somebody on the team.

With slow steps, Lancelot walked towards Sonic until the two were standing side-by-side. He surveyed the area around them from every angle until eventually his eyes landed on Sonic's. There was nothing but field and field and more field for miles around in every direction they looked. There were hardly any trees to break up the scene, and as far as either hedgehog was concerned, there wasn't a single sign of civilization on this planet. In simple terms, they were in the middle of nowhere.

"Please say that your friends are close by," Lancelot eventually said. "Or that you at least know where we are."

Sonic chuckled at Lancelot's pessimism, earning an unamused glare from the other. Sonic surveyed the area surrounding him as he took in the atmosphere. The smells, the sounds, the sights, the everything – it all brought back a thousand memories into his mind. He was quite familiar with this place, to the point where it seemed almost like a miracle that out of all the places on Mobius, this is where Merlina choose to drop them.

"We're near Green Hill Zone," Sonic answered. He turned to Lancelot with a newly-found peace on his face. The memories of the place feeling rejuvenating on his skin. "I had some of my earliest adventures here. Heck, I'd probably call this place my first home," he informed the other. "My friends live in a city not too far from here."

The knight had very little reaction to Sonic's exposition, however he did take the time to glance at his surroundings once more. Sonic almost wished he could take a look inside Lancelot's mind to know what he thought of the place. What would the outskirts of Green Hill look like to somebody so unfamiliar with it? To Sonic, it was impossible to look at these surroundings and not be flooded with all the emotions that his memories brought back to him. To walk across these fields was like to walk through the front door of his childhood home. He could probably draw a map of this entire region from memory alone – down to each rocky formation that he knew where only a few miles to the north. But to Lancelot, this was all new. A completely blank slate with not a single mental attachment. Sonic could only imagine how boring these fields looked to his companion. He only wished he had to time to run around this place and take Lancelot to all the sites. But, they had things to do and places to be.

"I will follow your lead," Lancelot eventually added after a moment of taking in the scenery. Sonic nodded.

Sonic crouched closer to the ground and prepared to take off, with Lancelot getting into position right behind him. But, before either could take their first step, Sonic suddenly shot back up straight and turned to his companion. "Wait, there is probably one more thing that I should mention before we head out!"

Lancelot cocked his head, a frown deep on his face.

"Your armor, you might want to take it off," Sonic commented, gesturing towards the metallic-covered hedgehog next to him. "People don't really do the whole armor thing around here. And once we get close to the city, you're going to start attracting a lot of attention while dressed ... like that."

"Now I know that you are jesting with me!" Lancelot retorted. He stood up straight and adjusted the helmet on his head. "You cannot possibly be suggesting that I strip myself of my defenses before partaking on a potentially dangerous mission!"

"Hey, hey! I'm just giving you the heads up!" Sonic defended, throwing his hands up to dismiss the other's anger. "You're going to be the only one in town dressed like a talking toaster." He had a playful smirk on his face, though Lancelot looked less than amused at his humor.

"I do not know what a toaster is, though I would rather look like one of them than go without my protective equipment. Where would you even suggest I store my clothing? We are in a field."

"You could just ... carry it? At least until we get to my friend's house."

"That is most impractical."

"Okay, look, forget I said anything! If you want to be a toaster-hog, then be a toaster-hog!"

"Fine. May we please head out now, Sir Sonic?" Lancelot asked, his impatience evident in both his tone and his posture.

"Yeah, yeah," Sonic responded, turning around to walk a few paces away from Lancelot.

"Oh, and another thing," Sonic threw out as he took a few more steps. Lancelot gave a curious hum in response. Sonic crouched closer to the ground and got into a running stance. "People also don't really use 'sir' in front of names around here. Call me 'Sonic'. Short, informal, and simple."

Without a moment pause, the speedster disappeared in a streak of blue heading across the fields and into the horizon. Lancelot delayed himself for only a moment.

"Short, informal, and simple ..." Lancelot repeated to himself, his eyes following as the blue streak shrank with every passing second.

Lancelot could already tell that he was not going to like this planet.

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It was a fifteen minute run. Which wouldn't sound so terrible, especially given the athleticism of both hedgehogs, yet a fifteen-minute run at the speeds these two were running would translate into a multi-day trip for the average person. Occasionally the pair would slow down enough to catch their breath, as the intense speeds put quite the strain on their bodies over prolonged periods of time, however they were always moving fast enough to keep the larger world a giant scene of moving blobs and formless colors. They seemed to be running through endless zones of grass, forests, hills, and mountains. It was getting to the point where Lancelot had received little evidence that anybody other than Sonic even lived on this planet. There were a few points where the duo passed what might have been a neighborhood or some form of building, though within a second those structures would be specks in the background as the hedgehogs ran through. Even those quick glances, however, were enough to spike the medieval foreigner's curiosity.

Lancelot never thought much about what type of world might have spawned such a radical adventurer such as Sonic, though perhaps if he did, he would have imagined a world like this. There seemed to be endless places to run and explore. There was something about this place that seemed … free. Open, spacious, wild. Very reminiscent of the one who now ran beside him. The two couldn't speak well while moving this fast, and they made little attempt to try, but part of Lancelot noted that – once Arthur was found and his kingdom was safe – he would not mind taking at least a few minutes to hear Sonic speak about this planet, if not only to learn what it was like through his eyes.

The ebony hedgehog was so consumed by his thoughts that he hardly noticed that he had taken his eyes off of the world in front of him and had focused on the hedgehog running next to him for the moment. That is why it came as such as shock when that very hedgehog began to slow down until halting to a near stop.

"We're here!" Sonic bellowed, throwing his arms into the air and crossing them behind his back.

Lancelot bent his legs and buried his feet thoroughly into the ground, causing sparks to fly behind his metallic sabatons in a path of light. The stop was hasty and messily done, completely out-of-style for the polished knight. However, the scene before him was shocking enough – bewildering enough – that Lancelot could hardly care less about his form and elegance.

What stood before him was … something he had never seen before. Something so foreign that he could hardly muster up any words to describe it. His mind was almost at a blank, though it was also racing at the same time. Disconnected thoughts bounced around his skull in the blind attempt to try and organize the overwhelming amount of information in front of him. Lancelot instinctually flipped his visor up just so his eyes could get a better view of all that laid before him.

Just below the hill they stood on was … a civilization? A town, perhaps? Though the buildings there looked taller than castles. And everything was so rectangular and geometric, but also alive and bright and moving. There was a cast of silver and grey that drowned out all the other colors, yet pockets of vibrant hues could be found amongst the giant pillars. A black path seemed to snake its way in-and-out between the buildings, and on that path were … carriages? Large, colorful carriages that seemed to zoom past faster than any carriage Lancelot had ever seen. And there were no horses guiding them! The carriages, they moved on their own! Perhaps those were animals? Maybe some type of alien horse creature that the citizens here have tamed and trained to carry them to their destinations? A giant river wrapped around the far end of the city, and over it was a gigantic metal structure that seemed to be an oversized bridge, connecting the ginormous pot of chaos before him to even more, never-ending streams of rectangular giants and black paths and alien horses and who knows what else. They were still far enough away that Lancelot couldn't make out any of the details, yet this overview alone was enough to rock him to his core. Without intention or realization, Lancelot began to take several steps backwards, retreating into the quietness and familiarity of the grassy fields behind them.

Lancelot refused to remove his eyes from the spectacle before him until a friendly chuckle brought him out of his daze. He shot a glare at the laughing hero next to him and grunted in annoyance. He personally did not find this overly amusing. This was overwhelming.

Sonic tried to muffle his own laughter as he took a solid step in between Lancelot and the chaotic mess of civilization. Sonic gave a friendly smile.

"Yeah, I guess you don't see too many big cities in Camelot, do you?" he asked. Though the question sounded mocking to the ears of Lancelot, the knight could also detect the lightheartedness in Sonic's tone. Lancelot was caught between whether he should feel embarrassed for his ignorance of this planet or whether he should feel annoyed with his own hesitation. Lancelot had travelled to numerous kingdoms across his world, most of which were completely unlike his own kingdom of Camelot. There should be no reason for him to hesitate in front of this new kingdom that laid before him, even if it were so drastically different from anything he's ever imagined before.

"That is where your friends live?" Lancelot asked, trying hard to keep his voice as neutral as possible. He would never willingly allow Sonic to know about his doubts and worries. Not only would it give the other ammo to further tease Lancelot, but it would also be a dishonor against his title of knight – something that Lancelot took very seriously. The dark hedgehog was tempted to push his visor down just in case his eyes were revealing any of his inner thoughts, though he resisted the urge.

"Yep! Sure is!" Sonic answered peppily. He twisted himself around so he was facing the city once more. "Gosh, I missed this place! It might seem a little intimidating at first, so it's alright if you want to take it slow—wow!"

Lancelot pushed his way pass Sonic, causing Sonic to lose his train of thought mid-sentence. The knight marched forward, down the hill and towards the city without even glancing to see if the other followed.

"I am not intimidated," Lancelot huffed out coldly and plainly. "Now let us move on, we are only wasting time."

"Oh, okay?" was Sonic's only response, though Lancelot hardly took the time to hear it. He was already halfway down the hill by the time Sonic jogged down in order to catch up to him. The two walked side by side, and Lancelot could tell that Sonic wanted to say something – perhaps to give his home city a proper introduction – but backed down when it became clear that Lancelot made no plans to hold conversation.

Knights were meant to be fearless and determined. The minor hiccup of weakness that Lancelot displayed a moment ago was already too much for him to tolerate. He expected more of himself, he always did. Though, it was also about more than pride this time. The more time Lancelot wasted being emotional and making small talk with Sonic, the less time he was dedicating towards finding King Arthur and rescuing his kingdom, which were the only two priorities that mattered to him at this point. All the knights took an oath to protect the kingdom and the royal family, though it was always more than an oath for Lancelot. Sir Percival and Sir Gawain were fine knights, as was true for the rest of the Round Table, yet they all had the luxury of having lives separate from their oath. The other knights had families and close friends. They had meaningful hobbies that existed outside of knighthood. They had pasts worth remembering and goals worth achieving. They had something to live for outside of being a knight, and that is why their knighthood would only be an oath to them and nothing more. But Lancelot – Lancelot had none of those things. Any family he had was burned away in the deep recesses of his mind alongside the memories of a past that he would rather forget, and any hobby Lancelot used to have was tossed to the side the moment King Arthur offered him a second chance at life. To many, Lancelot was considered the greatest of knights and the right-hand servant to the king. But to Lancelot, he felt like nothing more than some stray dog that Arthur had rescued.

He truly had nothing else outside of his oath to knighthood. And that is why it would always be more than just an oath to him.

Well, perhaps there was one other reason why it was more than an oath to Lancelot …

Sonic truly did look just like King Arthur. Lancelot noted the resemblance as he looked over to the hedgehog on his right side. When he first saw this blue menace, he nearly had a heart attack. Though, by that point, Lancelot had been so brainwashed to think that the illusionary Black Knight created by Merlin was the true Arthur that he had believed the illusion when it said that Sonic was nothing more than a spell conjured up by Merlina. An illusion claiming that a different individual was the illusion. It certainly was an ironic situation. Yet, at the end of the day, neither Sonic nor the Black Knight were the true King Arthur. Lancelot had never felt like more of a failure than when he discovered that Arthur was still missing.

"I know I'm handsome, but do you gotta keep staring at me like that?" Sonic asked, causing Lancelot to snap into awareness faster than one could blink. Sonic let out a hearty laugh and playfully pushed on Lancelot's shoulder, a gesture that the knight did not appreciate. A tint of pink formed on the knight's muzzle and he quickly swung his head around towards the opposite direction so Sonic wouldn't see. Lancelot would have to take better care at not getting so lost in his thoughts. Especially not while staring at this pesky Arthur-lookalike.

"I'm just messing with you," Sonic continued, taking advantage of the situation to finally start a conversation. Sonic struck Lancelot as the type of person who could never go quiet for long. "We're near the city limits. I recommend we start speeding up about now unless you want to get stopped by paparazzi every few feet!" Sonic said, stopping in his tracks to wait for Lancelot's response.

Lancelot turned back to Sonic once he was confident that his muzzle had returned to its normal coloration. Though, instead of responding with words, he merely gave the opposing hedgehog a confused glance and cocked eye ridge.

"I kinda saved the city from absolute destruction maybe once or twice – or maybe a dozen times," Sonic said. Though his phrasing made it sound like this was a humble brag, his posture and tone of voice made it clear that he meant it as an out-right, blatant boast. "Now the people like to stop and talk to me whenever they get the chance."

A grunt and a frown was all Lancelot had to offer to Sonic's comments. "Then so be it," Lancelot replied. "Let us run to your friends' homes."

Sonic beamed and hopped in place. "Let's do it to it!" he announced as he got into a running position. "Just try to keep up with me!"

With that, Sonic was gone in another blue blur.

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Running through the city was always fun for Sonic. He knew the roads and layout like the back of his palm, and yet the constant motion and development of the city still kept him on his toes about what his next hurdle would be around every corner. He leaped, ducked, and even bounced through it all. It was almost miraculous how little the city had changed since he had last been here, and how quickly his feet remembered each sidewalk. He supposed the last time he ran through the city was the morning before being transported to Camelot, which was only about four or five days ago in Camelot time – though, he was still not certain if time moved at the same speed between the different dimensions. Regardless, he was home, and prepared to rejoin the fun of city-living.

CRAAASH – OW, WHAT WAS THAT?

Oh yeah, and there was another thing that made this particular city run so much fun.

Sonic skidded himself to a halt for the fifth time in the past five minutes. He hadn't even come to a complete stop before turning himself around and facing the scene behind him. For the fifth time, he saw Sir Grumpy-Hog himself, slumped over and growling at the newest obstacle that disrupted his run. This time it appeared to be a trash can. Though, it was hard to call it a trash can now, as the speed in which Lancelot hit it left the poor cylinder crumpled up and smashed into the sidewalk with its rotten contents having launched out like a bomb went off in the area. Sonic snorted loudly, earning the attention of the stopped racer who was staring daggers into Sonic with his crimson eyes.

"I tried to avoid another one of those blasted core creatures and was unable to avoid this … this incredibly smelly pot," Lancelot growled out. His voice was filled with anger to the point where it was practically just a snarl, yet it was almost impossible for Sonic to take the other seriously. It took most of Sonic's energy just to keep from laughing.

"Okay, first of all, it's called a car, not a core. Car, C-A-R," Sonic corrected, trying especially hard to suppress the urge to make some witty comment at the other. This was probably the third time Sonic had to teach Lancelot about cars, and he was certain it wouldn't be the last time either. "Also, cars aren't creatures. They aren't alive at all. Remember? I told you the people inside are controlling them."

Lancelot's initial anger immediately transformed into absolute puzzlement. "Ah, yes …" the knight started, though his voice revealed his complete uncertainty in what he was saying. "The people inside control the car." He strained the last word very carefully, looking at Sonic intently for what Sonic assumed was some type of approval that he was pronouncing it correctly.

"Yeah, you're getting it!" Sonic added reassuringly. This time, he sounded a lot more genuine in his feedback, all urges to mock Lancelot fading into urges to genuinely help a confused companion. "And that smelly pot you hit into is actually a trash can. People throw their waste in there."

Lancelot immediately shot away from the fallen trash can, taking a large step towards the building on his other side. "Their waste?" he examined the exploded garbage as he spoke. "You mean to say that this is where people dispose of their … excrement?"

"What?! No! That's disgusting!" Sonic scrunched his face at even the thought of it. "I meant waste as in, like, empty cups and paper and stuff! We have indoor plumbing for that stuff you mentioned."

"Plumbing..?" Lancelot asked softly, though it was clear that he didn't expect an immediate answer from Sonic. All of this was completely alien to him.

Eventually, Lancelot nodded, his ears lowering a bit in embarrassment as he continued to eye the spilled garbage closely. He swiftly regained his composure, however, and took a few confident steps towards Sonic, showing no signs of his five previous crashes, questions, and embarrassments.

"Very well, then. We should continue onward," was all Lancelot said as he stopped by Sonic's side, refusing to make eye contact with the hedgehog.

Sonic once again bit his lip as the urge to mock the other hedgehog boiled over, but he restrained himself as he glanced around. Even this short interaction between the two hedgehogs generated quite the attention. Citizens were staring from all around, not even attempting to hide their eavesdropping and photo-snapping. Sonic groaned. He could only imagine what the headlines in tomorrow's gossip papers would be – 'World-famous hero caught explaining trash cans to a runaway from the local cosplay convention'.

The moment it became clear that the conversation between the hedgehogs had ceased, the newly-formed audience began to approach the strange pair, undoubtedly with hopes of scoring an autograph or perhaps taking a picture with the famed Big Blue himself. It normally wouldn't bother Sonic to indulge his fans – in fact, he often had a soft-spot for making people happy, so if simply writing his name on a piece of paper was enough to get somebody to smile, then it was all good with him. But, there were more pressing matters Sonic needed to take care of now. Plus, he was positive that Lancelot's brain would collapse if the medieval hedgehog had to stay in these overwhelming streets for much longer.

Therefore, Sonic immediately sprang into action before the people had the chance, taking a few quick steps forward and then breaking out into a full-on run. Lancelot followed close behind him without a moment's delay. Thankfully, they were close enough to Tails' laboratory (which was practically the fox's home as well, given how often Tails slept there) that the speedy hedgehogs were able to get there without any further crashes.

The old place didn't look like much from the outside. In fact, the mix-matched metal plates that lined the bottom half of the lab made it look as if it were some failed abstract art piece. But it was familiar and homey to the blue hero. It was tucked away nicely in some back area of the city where the traffic didn't flow by so often, which kept it quiet (or, as quiet as an inner-city home could be). Sonic could still see the dent in the mailbox from when he accidentally misjudged how long it would take to stop from one of his runs and he saw the little picture of two fox tails that Amy had painted on the door during one of the times she helped Tails clean the place up. It looked as if nothing had changed since Sonic had last been here, which instantly soothed any remaining guilt he may have felt from being absent for so long. Though, the hero would not be completely satisfied until he could see his fox companion with his own eyes and confirm that everything was okay.

"This is the place, I would presume?" Lancelot asked, bringing awareness to Sonic that he was still standing right beside him.

Sonic nodded, his mouth curled up into a genuine smile of contentment. Lancelot acknowledged the affirmation and took several steps forward. He stood up tall and seemed to adjust his chest place and helmet slightly until everything appeared to be in its proper place. Sonic could only assume the knight was preparing to make a good impression and wanted to look more presentable, though Sonic himself found the idea rather humorous as the guy was literally walking around in a full-metal suit, as if that wouldn't be the most ridiculous thing Tails has seen all week. Sonic should probably warn Lancelot one last time to take those garments off so he looked more normal …

Oh, thinking of things that Sonic should warn Lancelot about...

"Hey, Lance!" Sonic called out as the knight took several more steps towards the front door of the lab, fixating on adjusting his gauntlets as he moved. "Wait up a second! The security system might be on—"

HALT! THIS IS PRIVATE PROPERTY. HOLD STILL WHILE SCANNERS ACCESS YOUR IDENTITY.

The robotic voice boomed across the small alleyway, causing Lancelot's shoulders to tense and Sonic's eyes to roll. Too late.

"Show yourself, you monotoned guard!" Lancelot shouted into the air, briskly removing his sword from its sheath in one fluid motion. "It is Sir Lancelot, a knight from a far-off kingdom. I am accompanied by your friend, Sir Sonic."

Sonic pressed his fingers against his temple and released a heavy sigh. "How did my life come to this point," he mumbled to himself. Now how was he possibly supposed to explain what speakers and robots and automated security systems were to Mister Not-From-This-Century?

"Sonic is with you…?" this time, the lifeless voice of the security system was replaced by a more lively, excitable voice that echoed through the speakers. Sonic perked his head up instantly. That's a voice he'd recognize anywhere.

"I'm right here, Tails!"


	8. The Team Forms

The door burst open with a loud bang as it hit against the wall. Out from the new entrance appeared the familiar, childlike face of Sonic's favorite little inventor, Tails.

Sonic instinctually scanned Tails up and down to see if he was okay. The fox's bangs were a mess and his chest fur hadn't been combed in a while, but beyond that, the kid seemed normal. Sonic sighed in relief and his posture instantly relaxed from a tension he didn't even know he was storing. Off to the side, Sonic heard Lancelot murmur under his breath – something along the lines of 'local blacksmith', instantly reminding Sonic of his little brother's counterpart from the other world. Sonic smirked. He knew the feelings Lancelot was going through all too well. It truly was bizarre seeing someone you know, but then knowing they aren't actually that person.

"Welcome back, Sonic!" Tails beamed, though he spoke rather fast and there was a hidden anxiety underneath his tone. "And … Hello, Shadow?" Tails added with less certainty as he eyed Sonic's weirdly-dressed companion, though Tails seemed to be in too much of a rush to truly acknowledge the oddness of the situation. Lancelot let out a huff and looked as if he was about to speak, but was interrupted by the fox. Sonic furrowed his brow.

"I should probably warn you before you come in," the fox continued, taking a few hurried steps away from the entrance. "Amy came by because she was looking for y— YAH!"

Tails leaped to the side just in time to avoid the burst of pink that stormed out of the entrance. With hammer in hand and fire in her eyes, Amy Rose firmly took her place next to the unnerved fox.

"You better have a good story this time, Sonic the Hedgehog!" Amy shouted, firmly planting her hands on her hip, her hammer propped ominously against the ground.

Sonic gulped. Oh yeah, he forgot about that … The memories of what he was doing before being transported to Camelot came flooding back into his mind. He had been running to meet Amy at the local fair in town, two chili dogs in hand, when the portal opened up beneath his feet and sucked him straight into Camelot. Though Amy would definitely call their fair get-together a date, it was less of a date in Sonic's mind and more of a way to say 'thank you' to Amy after she helped him track down a Chaos Emerald a few weeks prior. However, he had gotten so caught up in his adventuring while in Camelot that it completely slipped his mind what he left back home.

"I waited for over an hour for you!" Amy continued, emphasizing each word as she spoke. "An hour! And don't tell me you forgot, because I had been reminding you about it for a week!"

"I didn't forget, Ames!" Sonic retorted, taking a cautionary step backwards as he eyed the girl's hammer. "I got caught up in some stuff!"

That was the understatement of the day. Sonic mind whipped around in chaotic fashion as he tried to come up with an easy and quick way to explain that he was involuntarily sent to a different dimension by a wizard before he got his quills pounded in.

Tails covered his ears as Amy opened her mouth to tell the blue hero off once again. However, she never got the chance to get a word out before being interrupted.

"Forgive me, my lady, but it is the truth that Sonic would have been incapable of attending your arrangement even if he desired to," the calm and collected voice of Lancelot announced. The knight had gone practically unnoticed in all the commotion between Sonic and his friends, causing Amy to gawk at him in surprise upon recognizing that he was there.

"It is terrible that you were left waiting, and I apologize for the inconvenience. A lady such as yourself should never be treated poorly." Lancelot gave a courtesy nod as he completed his thoughts. Amy was in such a state of shock that her hammer slipped out of her hand and hit the ground with a tiny 'thud'.

"Um … Thank you, Shadow?" Amy said slowly, examining the oddly-dressed hedgehog before her. She looked cautiously between the two male hedgehogs, though her eyes continually went back to the ebony one. It made sense for Amy to be this perplexed, for not only was Shadow acting rather strange in her mind, but it was also a rare sight to see the two superspeed hedgehogs together. Shadow always thought Sonic was a major pain, the only time the two ever joined forces was when the world was ending.

Amy shot a very panicked look at Sonic. Was the world ending?

"I assume this 'Shadow' must be my counterpart here," Lancelot explained plainly, looking over at Sonic for confirmation. His words only sparked further confusion in Tails and Amy, however, who quickly changed glances with each other to affirm that they were both hearing the same thing. Sonic nodded at Lancelot to confirm his suspicions.

"My name is Sir Lancelot," the knight introduced himself, bowing his head slightly towards Amy and Tails. "The Ultimate Knight of the Round Table in Camelot. I have come to assist your friend Sonic in a quest to save my kingdom." The hedgehog spoke with such pride and purpose, though he earned little more than a chuckle from Sonic and unbroken silence from the other two. Lancelot shot a glare at the blue hero.

"Lance, they don't know what any of that means," Sonic stated with a snort. He turned to his two friends, regaining some of his confidence now that Amy's hammer was out of her hand. "Look, how about we all head inside now? I have a feeling this will take a few minutes to explain. Plus, I have been dying for some good ol' microwaved macaroni!"

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If Lancelot had believed the outside city to be bizarre and overwhelming, then he was most certainly not prepared for what waited for him inside of the fox's laboratory.

The place was cluttered with the scribblings of what looked like an insane man in the eyes of Lancelot. Papers were on the floor and across tables and clung to the walls, each showing various sketches of designs or sometimes complex equations that the knight could hardly read. For a moment, Lancelot had panicked that perhaps these were part of some foreign language on this planet that he would be incapable of understanding, but it soon became apparent that this was not the case but rather these strange scribbles were the inner workings of some great inventor. The furniture in the place looked completely foreign to the hedgehog. He could recognize the various pieces as being tables, chairs, and cooking utilities, yet the materials they were composed of and their style were unlike anything he had encountered before. The most strange items in the room where those that Lancelot could not even name. There was a long looping counter that went around the walls, and though most of this counter space was covered with paper and various crafting supplies, other parts would be covered with black rectangles that occasionally had images of light coming from inside them. The little fox child quickly sat in front of one such black rectangle and pushed a few buttons, causing the images on the rectangle to move and change instantaneously.

It absolutely rattled Lancelot, though he kept his composure. He was done making a fool out of himself today. It would be better to remain quiet and allow the others to explain these new technologies to him rather than try to guess at their function.

Lancelot leaned himself against the giant, round table that sat in the middle of the room. To his side sat the lady whose appearances matched those of Nimue. Logically, Lancelot knew that this girl was not Nimue, though it certainly put an odd feeling in his stomach every time this lookalike shot him a cautious or untrusting glance.

He twisted himself to look at Sonic, the only one in the room he truly knew at the moment. The blue hero was busy bent over some metallic box that was placed on the counter. It looked as if Sonic had opened up a small cup of food before placing it into the metallic box and pressing some buttons on its side. With the touch of the last button, a bright light emitted from inside the box, illuminating a window between the outside world and the inner workings of this device. On the inside, the food cup spun in a circle. Lancelot could only assume that this box was some sort of heating device used for cooking, though he was absolutely baffled by the lack of fire and smoke. How was it making the food hot?

Sonic turned around and clapped his hands together, earning the attention of the other three in the room.

"Alright!" the hedgehog started. "First things first, how long have I been gone?"

The fox – who Lancelot believed was called Tails – looked puzzled by the question, but supplied a quick answer. "We saw each other yesterday morning. You stopped by to get ready for your thing with Amy."

"That was only yesterday?" Sonic asked, curiosity running in his voice. Tails nodded in response.

Sonic quickly looked towards Lancelot, the both of them coming to the same conclusion. Sonic was in Camelot for at least four or five days. If it had only been one day since Sonic left this universe, then that can only mean one thing – time moves faster in Camelot. Approximately four to five times faster, at that.

That meant, Camelot, Lancelot's home, was being destroyed at four to five times the rate. So every minute wasted here was wasting five minutes back there. Lancelot dug his fingertips into his upper arms, trying to contain himself.

"Our date was yesterday, too," the female hedgehog, who Lancelot believed was named Amy, huffed. Her anger about the situation was apparent, though Lancelot could tell she had calmed down considerably. She gave another worried glance towards Lancelot. Something about his presence clearly concerned her, though Lancelot couldn't imagine why. He could only assume it was related to whatever history existed between her and this Shadow, Lancelot's counterpart.

"So, why is Shadow dressed in armor?" the fox asked, though his voice sounded even more uncertain as he eyed the dark hedgehog.

Clearly, Lancelot's counterpart must not be overly popular with this crowd, for the entire time he has been here, Sonic's friends have been anxiously watching his every movement as if he might snap. Lancelot folded his ears back and withheld a snarky comment in his mind. He was becoming awfully tired of the people questioning his wardrobe as well. Why were the people of this planet so opposed to proper knight attire?

"Well, first off, that's not Shadow," Sonic answered, giving an amused expression as utter confusion took hold of his audience. "Secondly, well … This is a harder part to explain."

Sonic hummed and pressed his lips together, obviously debating on how he should begin his story. He tapped his foot a few times when suddenly the metallic box behind him buzzed. He twisted around and swiftly pulled out his cup of food. He blew some of the steam away and then resumed eye contact with the others.

"Let's take it from the beginning! Okay, so I was on my way to meet up with Amy …"

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It took approximately 15 minutes to explain everything, and even then there were numerous questions from both Amy and Tails. But, eventually, it seemed like the two were understanding the gravity of the situation.

They surprisingly took to the concept of Sonic traveling to an alternative dimension quite well. Then again, Sonic has done a lot of weird stuff while doing hero work, so it would probably take a lot to surprise any of his friends anymore.

"So, do you have any idea how long it will take for the darkness to consume Camelot?" Amy asked, her voice soft and filled with worry. It was odd for Sonic to see Amy now after spending the last several days with Nimue. In Sonic's mind, Amy had always been very passionate, energetic, and bubbly, whereas Nimue came across as being more reserved and calming. But, examining how quickly Amy was to show compassion towards people she doesn't even know, he began to see more of the similarities between the two pink hedgehogs.

"There is no way to tell," Lancelot answered. The knight had been silent during a majority of Sonic's explanation, only jumping in to add small details that Sonic had misremembered.

Despite his quietness, he was the main event for Amy and Tails who eyed him carefully throughout the whole story. It made sense, since neither Amy nor Tails were particularly close to Shadow, so they truly had no idea what to expect from his counterpart. Though they both seemed to calm down upon Sonic's emphasis that Lancelot is a friend during his story. He was grumpy but friendly, is how Sonic put it. Sonic was sure his explanation bothered Lancelot, but oddly enough the knight didn't complain.

"Then, I guess we have no time to waste," Amy said, determination building in her voice.

"Right!" Tails added in immediately. He twisted himself around to started punching in something on his keyboard, though Sonic couldn't see what. "I haven't heard about this Arcane Emerald before, though if it's on our planet, then I should be able to track it."

Sonic beamed with pride as he shoved another spoonful of microwaved macaroni in his mouth. That was the greatest thing about his friends, they never hesitated to jump into action. He hoped Lancelot now understood why he wanted to come to them first before running off to save the day without them. He scrapped his spoon along the bottom of his cup in order to pick up the remainder of the noodles. If Tails could get his scanners to detect the location of the emerald, then this mission would be a piece of cake.

"I do have another question, though," Amy said. Though Sonic didn't look up, he did twitch his ear to show that he heard her.

"Where did you get that necklace you're wearing?" Amy asked.

Sonic look down at his chest in surprise. He had completely forgotten that he was wearing a necklace! It was the one Nimue gave him before his departure – the one with the smooth stones taken directly from the mystical lake. Sonic let out an awkward laugh before returning his gaze to Amy.

"Oh yeah, that! I actually received that from Nimue – your counterpart – as a farewell present!" Sonic set down his meal and lifted the necklace up over his head, examining it in his hands. "Guess I should take it off now. Wouldn't want it getting damaged as we go about our business." He set the necklace down on the counter, mentally noting that he needed to put that somewhere safe.

"My counterpart," the pink hedgehog echoed. Sonic had mentioned Nimue during his explanation, and Amy had naturally asked many questions about her other self, though the thought of Nimue still amazed her, it seemed. She eyed the necklace carefully as Sonic put it down.

As the two hedgehogs continued to talk, Amy had moved out of her chair and went to stand by Sonic. She had picked up the necklace and began to examine it on her own, all while chatting with the blue hero about this Nimue and what Sonic thought of her. A hint of blush brushed against Sonic's muzzle as Amy insisted on knowing Sonic's thoughts on her counterpart, undoubtably searching for some sign that Nimue had reminded Sonic of Amy. In reality, Sonic did miss Amy while he was away, the same way he missed all his other friends, and every time he saw Nimue, it only reminded him that much more of the pink hedgehog he left at home. He tried to word his answers carefully though as he tiptoed around Amy's questions. It was always a minefield for Sonic to have these types of conversations with Amy. He cared about her, but only as a friend. But, he knew Amy was always digging for more out of him.

Sometime during the conversation, Sonic noticed that Lancelot had made his way around the table to where Tails was sitting in front of the computer. Sonic found it hard not to laugh as the knight looked completely bewildered by the technology in front of him. Sonic tried not to be rude and tried to listen to Amy as she spoke to him, but he couldn't help his eyes and thoughts from wandering to where Lancelot and Tails were across the room. From the distance, Sonic thought he could hear the others speak –

"Umm, can I help you with something, Lancelot?" Tails asked sheepishly as he looked up towards the knight lingering over his shoulder.

"Has your glowing rectangle informed you yet of any arcane energy?" the knight asked. Sonic tried to restrain a snort, earning a confused look from Amy who still believed he was talking with her.

"Oh, you mean my computer…?" Tails said, though his voice was still very uncertain. "Um, no, not yet. It's challenging because I don't have any reference for what arcane energy is beyond Sonic's explanation, so I am mostly just looking for any irregularities in the field."

Lancelot remained silent for a moment, seemingly debating his next words.

"Have you heard word of another blue hedgehog roaming in your dimension?" the knight asked eventually. The question caused an immediate ping of pain in Sonic's chest. By this point, he had completely zoned out Amy as he focused on his hedgehog companion across the room.

"Nope, I'm sorry," Tails answered, his own ears lowering. The fox's voice was filled with genuine sympathy, though it mellowed in comparison to the sadness Sonic could feel radiating off of the knight. Though Lancelot never showed his emotions on his face, Sonic could tell that the news brought his mood down significantly. It made Sonic feel terrible to see it. Despite the knight's stubborn and grouchy demeanor, Sonic couldn't help but care for the guy. Call it the curse of being the hero. You felt the need to help everybody, even the people you don't like that much.

Well, but that didn't quite apply to this situation, because Sonic did like Lancelot. The knight was the polar opposite of the free-spirited, laidback, thrill-seeking hero, but he had a good heart. Sonic could tell. Not to mention, there was something exciting about having another person who could actually challenge Sonic. It was the same reason why Sonic loved messing with Knuckles so much. The echidna was one of the only friends he had who could actually challenge him in a fight, and Sonic lived for the thrill of never knowing what was going to happen next. The only other person who made Sonic feel that way was Shadow, though let's just say that friendship never really took off. To Sonic, Lancelot was like having a second chance at befriending the same brooding, yet oddly likable, ebony hedgehog.

"We'll find Arthur, don't you worry about that," Sonic abruptly added, taking everybody in the room by surprise.

Amy stopped in mid-sentence to the rude acknowledgement that Sonic hadn't been listening to her. Tails and Lancelot, on the other hand, were shaken by the realization that Sonic had been listening into their conversation. Lancelot grew a softer look in his eyes, almost as if he were quietly thanking the other hedgehog for the reassurance. It was only at this point that Sonic noticed that Lancelot had completely taken off his helmet sometime during the conversation, completely revealing his face for the first time since Sonic had known him.

"This is a big world. It's possible he's still out there and we just haven't heard about it yet," Sonic continued, nodding at his own comment. "Though, if this Arthur is anything like me, then I doubt he'll be able to stay out of the limelight for long!" Sonic gave a playful wink, which surprisingly earned a soft smile from Lancelot. However, it quickly faded before Sonic could comment on it.

"He's right!" Amy added. She seemed to have gotten over her earlier irritations with Sonic, her inner desire to help those in need taking over. "We'll find your world's Sonic in no time!"

"Umm, guys!" Tails shouted out. "Not to ruin the moment, but you might want to look at this!"

He pointed at his screen frantically and within one swoop, Sonic leaped over the center table in the room and landed besides Tails. Amy took her time running around the table, but soon enough they were all gathered around the computer.

"What is it?" Amy asked the question on everybody's mind.

"It-it's … I don't know!" Tails blurted out. The screen they were all looking at was nothing but gibberish to Sonic. He saw it was some sort of radar system that showed a bunch of different colored dots. There were numerous green blinking dots all over the screen and they all seemed to be converging on the center point – quite rapidly, at that.

"Something is coming this way!" Tails continued. "I recognize some of the signatures as Eggman robots, but there is some other reading that I'm picking up … I don't know what it is, but it's definitely powerful!"

"Well, if it's with Eggman, then it's no good!" Sonic asserted, earning two affirming nods from Amy and Tails.

"What is an Eggman?" Lancelot cocked his head to the side as he asked, eyeing the flashing lights on the screen suspiciously.

"An overboiled loser," Sonic quickly retorted. Though, the remark did little to appease Lancelot's confusion.

"He's an evil and violent creep who wants nothing more than to take over the world," Amy continued, giving a slightly more helpful answer. "He is always sending his robot henchmen off to do his dirty work, but Sonic always stops them!" Amy gave a bright smile towards her blue companion at the last comment, which Sonic responded to with a cocky smirk.

"The question is, what does he want this time?" Tails pressed his face closer to the screen while asking.

"Hey, why don't we go ask Egghead himself?" Sonic added playfully before dashing his way to the door. "That is, if he can still talk after I'm done with him!"

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Lancelot and Amy quickly bust through the door behind Sonic – Amy with her giant hammer out and swinging, and Lancelot with his sword that he had been stealthily storing in his sheath this whole time. Tails came out just a moment later with some type of mechanical laser gun in hand.

On the horizon, they could all see swarms of Eggman droids flying towards the base. It caught Sonic by surprise to see how close the robots were coming. It was common for Eggman to make moves on the various cities of Mobius – in fact, it has gotten to the point where most Mobian cities were built with anti-Eggman structures to help them withstand the frequent attacks – yet Tails took care to make sure Eggman could never track the location of Tails' laboratory. So the fact that these robots were flying straight towards the lab as if that was their target location was completely strange. Had Eggman finally broken through Tails' security system and tracked the fox down?

Sonic didn't waste another second to figure it out. As soon as a flying beetle bot got into range, Sonic leaped towards it and bounced off its head, causing a minor explosion behind him. He then leapt to the next bot and the next and the next until one by one they were obliterated behind him. He landed back on the road with a smirk planted firmly on his face. He turned around to a few claps and cheers from Tails and Amy. Lancelot, however, looked completely bewildered by the falling metallic parts being littered from the sky.

"What … are these creatures?" Lancelot whispered out.

"I can explain robotics to you later if you want, Lancelot!" Tails offered kindly, before bouncing forward. "But, right now, just focus on smashing as many of these guys as possible!"

With that, Tails propelled his tails and launched himself into the air before whipping his laser gun forward and blasting a short beam at an oncoming bot. The bot burst upon impact. Lancelot nodded firmly. He might not understand what his enemies are, but he does understand how to fight.

As the waves of robots continued to pour in, Lancelot and Amy both joined in on the action. Sonic and Tails stuck to the air fighting, as Sonic's jumping and Tails' flying allowed them ample opportunities to take out their flying opponents. Lancelot and Amy made short work of the ground robots, as powerful swings of hammer and sword smashed the robots in seconds. Sonic was actually quite impressed with how well Lancelot seemed to handle the fight despite being so obviously confused by what his enemies even were. The knight fought with such grace as he danced around his opponents and craftily sliced them to shreds with his weapon. In fact, it was miraculous that his sword was even capable of penetrating robotic armor.

He would have to challenge Lancelot to another duel later, Sonic mentally noted. He wanted to test the knight's skills for himself once more.

"Hohoho! Ah, Sonic! I should have known that you and your pesky friends would be here the moment I got near the city!"

The four heroes all landed on the ground closer to each other. They all stared intently towards the sky as ever so slowly, the Egg Mobile lowered itself into view, carrying none other than the overboiled loser himself. Sonic tried to hold back a growl, his quills spiking upon instinct.

"I'm disappointed in you, Eggman," Sonic called out, his voice drenched in sarcasm. "You used to at least try and make your robot attacks interesting, but this one was too easy and boring. I'd give it a 0/10, would not recommend."

"You're even a bigger fool than I thought if you think that these robots were for you!" Eggman responded, earning little more than a frown from Sonic. "I came here to collect something that I've been looking for, and it seems …" Eggman trailed off as he pulled a small device from his hovercraft and examined it closely "… it seems that it should be right here? Well, this is interesting."

"Whatever it is that you're looking for, Eggman, we won't let you have it!" Tails hollered back, bouncing from foot to foot as he spoke.

Sonic scrunched up his nose. It didn't seem like Eggman knew that this was Tails' laboratory location. But, then, what did bring Eggman here?

"And this situation keeps getting stranger!" Eggman exclaimed, completely ignoring Tails' earlier remark. "Shadow, is that you? Now, why in chaos's name are you dressed like some fairytale knight?"

Lancelot stepped forward until he was in a better position to be viewed by Eggman, and so he had an easier time seeing Eggman himself. He snarled and braced himself to jump up and attack.

"My name is not Shadow," he hissed out.

"Oh, don't tell me you got amnesia again!" Eggman cried out. Lancelot only huffed in response.

Eggman looked down once more at the device in his hands, which Sonic could only assume was a radar, and then he looked back at Lancelot. He did this several times before shrugging his shoulders.

"Oh well! According to my readings, you're the one who has what I want, Shadow. Guess that means you'll be taking a ride with me. Egg-bots, get him!"

With the command of their overlord, the robot army that had slowly been circling the heroes suddenly launched forward into attack mode.

Sonic had to leap to the side just to avoid being tackled by one of the bots. He quickly rebounded and ran straight through the metallic enemy, tearing its whole body apart in the process. Amy and Tails began to deflect the enemies that were swarming towards their side, though it quickly became apparent that they were becoming overwhelmed. Sonic snarled and leapt into the air, quickly bouncing off each of the robot's heads as they approached his friends until they were nothing more than metal sheets and bolts.

Just as the speedy hero received a relieved 'thank you' from Amy, he heard a bloody scream from behind him. He whipped around to see Eggman hollering with laughter as a defenseless Lancelot squirmed in the robot arms extending from the Egg Mobile. Lancelot thrashed from side to side, but with every movement, the hands surrounding him squeezed tighter.

Lancelot tensed his whole body and let out one last angered shout.

"Arcane Control!" he bellowed. For a brief flicker of a second, his body began to glow brightly. But, suddenly and without cause, the glow vanished into the air and dissipated into nothingness. Lancelot's eyes shot wide open, horror evident in his pupils. It didn't work. He couldn't Arcane Control here.

"Let him go!" Sonic screamed as he tucked himself into a spindash. He launched himself into the air, only to feel the horrible sting of something ramming into his side. The force was enough to redirect Sonic's spindash directly into the ground, where the blue blur destroyed several feet of pavement, before coming to a painful stop. Amy screamed in horror.

"Now, now, I really must be going! Ta-ta, Sonic!"

With that goodbye, Eggman whisked away towards the horizon, his robotic army following closely behind. Even from the distance, Sonic and his friends could hear the horrible screams of Lancelot as he faded from view.

Both Tails and Amy rushed towards the crater that Sonic remained in. Amy threw herself on her knees so that she was kneeling by Sonic's side.

"Are you okay?!" cried the horrified pink hedgehog. Sonic groaned loudly in response.

"We need to get you inside to bandage you up!" Tails shouted out.

Sonic pushed himself off the ground until he was on his hands and knees. He shook himself aggressively until all the dirt and dust flew off of him. Amy had to cover her face just to protect herself from the flying debris.

"I need to save Lancelot!" Sonic announced as he pushed himself back onto his feet. Nothing else was in his mind except the image of Lancelot being carried away by Eggman.

Sonic leaped out of the hole he had made and turned to the horizon. He could still see a speck of Eggman's army in the distance. He growled. Genuine anger building inside of him. He felt so stupid, he should have been watching Lancelot closer. Whatever pain Sonic felt along his side disappeared amongst the determination building in Sonic's gut. Who knows what type of wicked plan Eggman has for the knight? Well, he wouldn't give Eggman the chance to try any of it.

Tails walked up besides his blue companion. "Sonic, maybe we can go inside and fetch the Tornado in order to chase after—"

"I'll meet you guys there!" Sonic blurted out.

Without waiting for a response, the blue hedgehog shot off like a bullet, disappearing as a streak of blue along the streets.

"Sonic! WAIT!" was all Tails could muster, but by the time he spoke, Sonic was already long gone.


	9. Too Many Hedgehogs

It didn't take long for Sonic to catch up with the robotic fleet. Sonic followed them until they were out of the city and flying over the endless fields surrounding it.

Somehow, Eggman himself managed to vanish during this chase. But, Sonic knew that his robotic army was programmed to return to their 'home', so wherever they were going, Eggman would undoubtably be there as well. And, once he was at the base, it would be time for a smashin'. Sonic could hardly wait and only ran faster as he zipped over the last few hills. Soon enough, the base itself came into view.

It looked like a massive plane floating close to the ground. Purple metallic plates covered the outside of it and the base remained low enough to be hidden from view behind the hilly surroundings. The front of it curved to form the shape of a beak almost, giving the whole aircraft the appearance of a hawk. A giant, metallic, jet-engine hawk. Sonic had smashed this thing to bits so many times that he was almost shocked that Eggman bothered to rebuild it anymore. Then again, what more could he expect from the guy who tries using the same robots against his nemesis every time they fight? Typically this base would be seen high into the sky, on its way to the next failed attempt of Eggman to take over a city. But, it appears the doctor had been laying low here.

Well, now that Sonic found it, he wouldn't be able to lay low much longer.

Sonic surveyed the area. There were a few bots floating around the ship, and undoubtably there were motion-seeking guns around every corner – as such weapons were a staple on Eggman bases. Normally, Sonic's plan would just be to rush the base at full speed and bust his way through it all, but Eggman might have a few hidden surprises for the hedgehog if he expected that Sonic would follow him back here. Sonic could wait for Tails to show up in case he needed the backup … Then again, the images the Lancelot being carried away were still fresh inside the hero's mind. His friend was in trouble, and every second wasted was another second that Eggman could be harming Lancelot. Besides, when was the last time Sonic waited for anything? He worked better thinking on his feet anyway.

Sonic prepped himself to take off in a dash—

BOOOOOOM

Thick clouds of smoke poured into the sky as bits of metal and flame burst out from the far side of the ship. The once quiet field came to life with lasers and bullets flying as the Egg Base switched into full attack mode. A wayward missile launched itself towards Sonic. The hero leaped into the air and landed himself a few feet away as the weapon passed, bursting in midair.

What … was that?

Did Tails just attack the base?

No, he couldn't have. Sonic would have seen the Tornado flying pass.

Guess there was only one way to find out what was going on.

Sonic launched himself towards the chaos in front of him, jumping and diving pass missiles, lasers, and bots. Thankfully, the security system seemed preoccupied with the area of the explosion, making it so Sonic was able to zoom on top of the ship and cruise across its surfaces without much resistance. Within seconds, Sonic was looming over the scene of the eruption.

A gash had been made into the side of the ship. Smoke was continuing to pour out of the hole, though it was quickly filled by security bots flying in and out. Occasionally, bursts of metal would rain from the hole. From the inside, Sonic could already hear the blaring alarms and sounds of somebody screaming.

Sonic wasted no time. He leaped into the gash and braced himself for attack. It was good that he did, for as soon as his feet hit the metallic floor of the inner ship, something came racing towards him. The hero darted to the left, just in time for the foe to whizz past him. He whisked his head around just in time to see the attacker – a rapidly spinning black sphere – smash into the wall behind him. Pipes burst and more steam was released into the atmosphere.

The attacking sphere broke its form and transformed itself into … a hedgehog?

"Lancelot!" Sonic exclaimed. Despite his abrupt joy, Sonic also took the moment to catch his breath.

Sonic quickly examined the hedgehog before him, reassuring himself that his friend wasn't seriously injured. The black and red mobian seemed unharmed, but he was surprisingly missing his armor. His quills were spiking with anger and a scowl was on his face.

Sonic scoffed, too relieved by seeing that his companion was okay to care about the details of the situation.

"I should have known Eggman wouldn't be able to hold you for long! Nobody messes with the hedgeho—"

"What are you doing here, faker?"

The aggression and bluntness of the response caught Sonic off-guard.

"Shadow?!"

Upon closer examination, it was obvious that the hedgehog in front of him was none other than the brooding, goth-hog himself. His face was permanently bent into a scowl, at least that's how it seemed from Sonic's eyes. Not to mention that his gloves and boots were a completely different design from his medieval counterpart. The blue hedgehog frowned and twitched his ears.

"Well, what are you doing here, fake—"

"Watch out!"

Shadow interrupted the hero once more, though this time he dashed forward. Sonic yelped and ducked out of the way as Shadow flew over his head and roundhouse kicked a beetle bot out of the air.

Yeah, perhaps having a conversation while infiltrating an enemy's base wouldn't be the best plan of action right now.

Sonic broke into action. He dashed around and took out at least four more bots as they rushed into the corridor. He ran down the hallway in order to escape the gash where more security bots seemed to be flooding in from and was surprised to find that Shadow soon was running right next to him. The two hedgehogs forced their way into a locked-off room off to the side.

Sonic surveyed the area and found themselves to be in some type of weapon inventory. Guns and missiles of all types were displayed on the rows of shelves that filled the entire room from wall to wall. All the weapons seemed to be stagnant though. Sonic turned to his unamused companion.

"I will ask again," Shadow stated after a brief second of silence. "What are you doing here?"

Sonic scanned the hedgehog up and down closely. It was always odd seeing Shadow, though it was especially odd now after spending so much time with Lancelot. The appearances between the two were uncanny. The only true separating factor was that Lancelot was always dressed in armor whereas Shadow was hardly dressed in anything at all.

Even if it weren't for Lancelot, however, this encounter would still be unsettling for the blue hero. It was always unpredictable what side Shadow was on. He's worked with both Eggman and G.U.N in the past, and other times it seemed like the dark hedgehog didn't work with anybody – just did whatever he pleases. That sort of mentality never made sense to Sonic. Ever since he was a child, Sonic's one goal in life was to defeat Eggman and liberate the people of his planet from all types of tyranny, and the hero couldn't fathom doing anything else with his life. Shadow seemed to change goals every week, depending on what suited him best.

But, Shadow was just taking out Eggman robots and clearly was in the process of breaking into Eggman's base. So, regardless of who Shadow was working with now, he was anti-Eggman. And that was good enough for Sonic.

"I'm here to rescue my friend. Eggman kidnapped him and I'm here to get him back," Sonic answered. He nodded firmly and placed his hands on his hips. "And what about you?"

Shadow hummed curiously at Sonic's reasoning. He seemed to internally debate whether or not he should share his information with the hedgehog. Sonic thought that Shadow might not tell him after all, but then Shadow suddenly decided to open up.

"Eggman has been behaving suspiciously over the course of the last few weeks. I saw a fleet of his droids flying away from the city, and decided to investigate."

Sonic cocked his head. It's true that Eggman had been quiet in the few weeks leading up to Sonic's trip to Camelot, but the hedgehog typically didn't think much of the egghead's quiet periods. It was normal for Eggman to take long breaks in between his schemes, so Sonic hadn't seen anything suspicious about this occurrence. Sonic figured there was more to Shadow's story, but didn't press the issue.

It didn't really matter to Sonic why Shadow was here. As long as he's helping take down Eggman and doesn't plan on getting in Sonic's way, then everything was good between them.

Alarms blared into the weapon's room, causing both of the hedgehogs to instinctually drop into fighting positions. Red light flashed across blue and black fur until eventually loud thuds could be heard coming from the hallway. Rubble flew as a giant walker robot squeezed itself through the too small of an entrance.

Sonic smirked. Finally, something a little more challenging.

He jumped backwards and ran forwards, gaining enough speed to crack the metallic armor of the bot as he headbutted into it. The robot planted its feet firmly into the ground, causing the metal floors to crack under the pressure. It then rocked its body back and forth with such ferocity that Sonic was flung to the other side of the room. The hedgehog landed on his feet, though uncontrollably slid backwards right into a shelf. Weapons of all sorts began to fall from above and Sonic hopped all over the place to avoid the avalanche.

The walker let loose a barrage of bullets until the whole floor was lit up like a night sky. Sonic watched as Shadow jumped backwards to avoid the oncoming attack. The ebony hedgehog waited for an opening before launching himself into the air and throwing his arm backwards.

"Chaos … SPEAR!"

Yellow light flooded towards his hand until a golden rod seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Shadow swung his arm forward, rocketing the spear towards the foe. Sonic ducked to avoid the explosion of smoke and rubble, though lifted his head in time to see the walker fall backwards.

"Ah-ha!" The blue hero exclaimed. "Not too bad … for a second-rate hedgehog, at least." Sonic shot a playful glance at Shadow.

The darker hedgehog huffed. "If I am only second-rate, then I cannot imagine what rate of hedgehog you are. I do not know if they even have numbers that go that high."

Sonic faked a frown, though he couldn't hide the traces of a smile coming through.

Suddenly, the robotic walker began to shake and brought itself up to its feet. Sonic grunted. Guess the guy wasn't done yet … Both hedgehogs leapt into action and bounced off the machine one after another, until it was properly dented. However, the walker held strong and continued to fire rapid bullets across the room.

"I can handle this on my own," Shadow called out as he dashed across the room, dodging another ray of bullets. "You will only be getting in my way if you stay around longer!"

Sonic jumped over a flying robotic leg that swung his direction before landing promptly on his feet. He cartwheeled over to Shadow, making sure to kick a flying hunk of metal out of the air on his way there.

"And let you have all the fun? No way!"

Shadow grunted and punched an oncoming rocket, sending it flying across the room. He frowned.

"There is no need to be stubborn. Don't you have a friend to be rescuing?"

Sonic flattened his ears. He had forgotten about that. Sometimes the hero got too caught up in the thrill of the fight for his own good. Poor Lancelot had been sitting in Eggman's lair for who knows how long by this point. His ears perked back up and he nodded firmly.

"I'll go ahead!" the hero declared. Shadow grunted in response.

Sonic prepared to take off, but just as he did, he saw from the corner of his eye something metallic swarming towards Shadow. A missile the walker fired when they were distracted! The ebony hedgehog seemed to be preoccupied with the walker in front of him that he didn't even notice the oncoming attack from the side. Sonic felt his body hunch as his heroic instincts took over.

"Hey! Look out!"

Sonic leapt over Shadow and landed on his other side. He briskly shot his leg into the air and roundhouse kicked the flying missile as it speeded through the air. The force alone was enough to launch the missile onto a different path towards the walker. When the two metallic entities made contact, the missile burst into a million pieces and shattered the front of the walker along with it. The giant beast sizzled and beeped until eventually it all went quiet. Then, it fell.

Clouds of smoke and debris flew up around it. Sonic positioned himself in front of the other hedgehog, though he wasn't sure why. He threw up his arms to protect his face from the oncoming assault of robotic bits and his body blocked the remains from hitting his companion. From behind him, he heard the ebony hedgehog catch his breath … or perhaps it was a surprised gasp? Sonic couldn't quite tell. After the smoke settled, both hedgehogs glanced around and noticed that the room was clear of enemies, save from the smashed remains of them covering the floor.

Sonic turned to Shadow, his grin only wider now than it was before.

"I told you I could have handled this on my own, hedgehog," Shadow growled out.

Sonic faked a pout. Though, internally, he actually was quite discouraged. Every time he tried to do something nice for the darker hedgehog, he was always so rudely shut down. It really grinded his gears sometimes.

"That's an odd way to say 'thank you'," Sonic commented. Though he meant it as a playful comment, he silently feared that some of his genuine discouragement leaked through in his voice. He hoped that Shadow didn't notice. Or, if he did, that he didn't care, which was probably the more likely scenario.

Shadow crossed his arms and turned his back to the other hedgehog. Sonic hummed out a sad note. The goth-hog was always like this. Sonic shrugged his shoulders, trying to shake off the emotion. He had a job to do and, as far as he was aware, Lancelot still needed saving. He was only wasting time visiting here with Shadow.

Sonic twisted himself around on his feet and began to hop over robotic remains until he was perched near the entrance of the weapon inventory. He looked both ways, mentally trying to gage which direction would lead towards the prisoner bay – or wherever else Eggman would be storing Lancelot.

"Go to the left," a voice from behind him stated. Sonic lurched around and gave a bewildered glance at Shadow as the darker hedgehog walked up next to him.

"Down the left and then cut in towards the center of the ship. That's where the bridge of the ship seemed to be based on the outer design, and most likely where Eggman is keeping your friend," Shadow explained further. He never looked at Sonic while he spoke, but he kept moving until he was standing an arm's reach away from him. Sonic tilted his head.

"Why, thanks for the tip!" Sonic exclaimed. For a moment, the blue hero thought to question how Shadow came to know such knowledge, but he figured it would be a waste of time to ask. Shadow had worked with Eggman enough times in the past to have a good sense for how the doctor operated.

Sonic leapt off the heap of robot and landed into the corridor again. He looked to the left before looking back at Shadow.

"Hey, I just remembered something," Sonic continued. This time, Shadow cocked his head. "When Eggman ambushed my friends, he mentioned that he was looking for something. He was using some sort of radar to find it and it lead him to my friend." Sonic shrugged his shoulders. "Figured I should fill you in on that, given that you're investigating the Egghead."

Shadow's posture seemed to change at this comment. He lifted his head up and his eyes narrowed in surprise. He jumped down next to Sonic again and looked over his shoulder.

"More droids might be on their way. We can make our way into the base together while you fill me in on this kidnapping."

Sonic nodded in agreement. Without missing a beat, both hedgehogs took off into a dash down the hallway. Sonic paid careful attention to whichever turns and directions Shadow took, as he trusted that the darker one knew the layout of the base better than he did at this point. Occasionally the two would have to slow down in order to punch out a few security cameras or knock over a bot, but they were able to keep a good pace as they navigated the base.

"Did the Doctor ever tell you what he was looking for?" Shadow asked, taking a quick glimpse at Sonic before returning his sight to the corridor ahead of them.

Sonic scrunched his nose as he tried to remember the events from just a short while before. He didn't recall Eggman saying much about what he was looking for. Then again, Sonic was pretty distracted by the swarm of robots around him, so it's possible he just wasn't listening. Sonic eventually shook his head, but wasn't sure if Shadow even saw. Shadow must have though, because he quickly responded with a follow-up question.

"And your friend – was it the fox inventor or the young rabbit?"

The hero tried to contain a snort. Shadow knew the names of Tails and Cream. He had interacted with Sonic and his friends on enough occasions to know all of them, even if they didn't always get along. Yet, Shadow seemed to insist on pretending like he hardly knew them and would often refuse to use their first names. It was an odd quirk of Shadow's and Sonic only wished he could understand what went on in his rival's mind.

"No, you haven't met this guy yet," Sonic explained. "Let's just say that he isn't really from around these parts …"

His voice drifted off as he spoke. The pair took a sharp turn around a corner and Sonic instantly took off into a spindash at the sight of an oncoming robot barricade. He twisted around just in time to see Shadow undo from his own spindash and regain his running position next to the hero. Sonic smirked.

"But, I think you'll find my friend to be very familiar to you."

Shadow slowed down in the middle of his run to shoot a puzzled expression at Sonic before regaining both his pace and his composure.

"This is quite the odd situation, indeed," Shadow mumbled, though Sonic picked up on the vibe that he was mostly talking to himself by this point.

Oh Shadow, you have no idea how odd it's going to get. Sonic kept a playful smirk on his face as he busted down the hallway.

"LET ME OUT OF HERE!"

A loud scream burst through the inner thoughts of both Shadow and Sonic. They both stopped in their tracks, coming to a screeching halt. Sonic's ears shot up. He recognized that voice instantly.

Lancelot!

He didn't sound that far away at all! Sonic could feel his heart speed up as he focused on the direction of the calls. Shadow, on the other hand, looked completely bewildered. Sonic could only image the type of confusion he was going through. To him, it was as if his own voice had echoed through the walls.

"This way!" Sonic called out as he rushed to follow the voice. He could only assume that Shadow was following him, because he didn't waste the time to turn around and check.

As the screaming continued, Sonic tucked himself into a spindash and took out the final door that stood in the way between him and his friend.

Landing safely on the other side, Sonic took only a second to take in his surroundings. The perimeter of the room was surrounded with equipment of all sorts – computers, flashing lights, the whole shebang, all of which was too complex for Sonic's understanding. But, his main focus was at the center of the room where a giant tube was on display. Inside the tube was the angry and thrashing figure of none other than—

"AN IMPOSTER!"

Sonic barely had time to move out of the way as Shadow launched himself forward and into the room. The ebony hedgehog threw himself at the center tube, his arm glowing with the power of chaos energy.

Perhaps Sonic should have taken more time to prep Shadow before leading him to Lancelot.

Sonic yelled out as he rushed forward and knocked himself into Shadow's side. The impact knocked Shadow off his course, causing him to miss the tube with his chaos strike and instead explode a wide variety of electronics off to the side. Shadow glared at Sonic, his sharpened teeth showing below a scowl.

"Why are you interfering, Sonic?" Shadow yelled out. "That is another android clone and it must be destroyed!"

Sonic placed himself firmly in between Shadow and the center tube. From inside the centerpiece, Sonic could hear Lancelot scream and bang his fists on the edges. His shouts were muffled by the thick plastic he was incased in, but he could tell that the knight was equally as confused by this interaction as Shadow was. Sonic stretched his arms out to make it clear to Shadow that he wouldn't allow him to pass.

"This isn't an android, Shadow! This is my friend—"

But Shadow never let the other finish. He hurled himself forward once again, this time in a spindash. Sonic jumped up to intercept Shadow, but was blown to the side as Shadow zipped pass. Sonic flew into the wall and felt his whole body scream in pain as it was pushed into the cement. Despite the damage, Sonic pushed himself forward when he saw Shadow hit into the centerpiece.

The whole tube shattered into a million plastic shards, freeing the prisoner inside, though only for a moment. For as soon as the plastic shield disintegrated, the contained hedgehog was knocked to the ground by his attacker.

"Your days are over, you clone!" Shadow screamed as he stood in front of his twin. Lancelot moaned in pain, but used his arms to push himself into a sitting position.

"You barbaric maniac! You know not of who you are angering!" The knocked-down hedgehog responded. Before Sonic could even fully recover from his earlier hit, the knight was back on his feet.

It was at this point that Sonic realized that Lancelot had been removed of all his armor, leaving him only with his white gloves and boots. This difference made it almost impossible to distinguish between the two feuding hedgehogs, though it hardly mattered at this point as they both seemed equally determined to destroy the other.

Lancelot pounced forward to knock into Shadow, though Shadow swiftly vanished in a short Chaos Control and reappeared behind the knight, kicking him to the side. Lancelot grumbled as he reconnected with the ground.

"Ah, so I see you have comparable abilities to my own," Lancelot mumbled as he pushed himself up once again. "No matter, I need not of special skills to put you in your place."

"Put me in my place?" Shadow growled back. "You are nothing but a fake. What makes you believe that you could stand a chance against the true Ultimate Lifeform?"

Lancelot did not respond in words, but rather answered in the form of him running around the room in a blur of black and red. Shadow braced himself to run off as well, but had little time to do so before Lancelot charged in for the attack. Soon enough, it was Shadow who was being hit around from all sides and being knocked to the floor. Shadow swiftly regained his footing and took off in his own flash. Soon, the room was nothing more than a tornado of black and red streaks ramming into each other and bouncing off the walls.

"HEY!"

Both the black hedgehogs flew backwards as a flash of blue cut in between them both, hitting them both back to opposite ends of the room. Sonic stood on the raised platform that once contained a plastic tube and looked between his two identical companions.

"Look, you're both beautiful. Now, can you quit fighting?"

He heard an exhausted grumble from one of the hedgehogs and a low hum from the other. Sonic breathed out a deep sigh. He turned to Shadow first.

"That isn't an imposter that you're fighting, Shadow," he began. Shadow looked like he was about to interrupt again, but Sonic continued to speak over him. "That's my friend, Lancelot. Yes, yes, I know he looks identical to you. It's … It's a hard thing to explain. But, I promise that he isn't made by Eggman and he's not here to replace you."

Sonic smiled teasingly at Shadow. "Not that anybody could ever replace my favorite second-rate hedgehog." Sonic winked, though he earned only an audible groan from Shadow. Despite his clear remaining annoyance, the playful banter did seem to calm Shadow down to a manageable degree.

Sonic twisted his focus to the other side of the room.

"And, Lancelot, this is Shadow – your counterpart in this world," Sonic explained. Lancelot made a cautious glance towards his duplicate, who looked completely baffled by the statement Sonic had just made.

"You'll have to forgive his rather rude introduction," Sonic continued, emphasizing his words. "He's had some bad experiences with doppelgangers in the past and it's a bit of a touchy subject for him. I promise that he's on our side now … Isn't that right, Shads?"

Sonic returned his attention to Shadow, who had since stood up and brushed the rubble out of his fur. Shadow huffed loudly.

"I think you are insane, hedgehog," he replied rather plainly. "But, I will let this battle rest for the time being. Only because I do not believe that Eggman would create an android this pathetic."

Shadow gave a warning look to Lancelot. The counterpart audibly grumbled at the comment, his face turning red. Sonic would have poked fun at Lancelot's expression, but he was getting frustrated with both of the dark hedgehogs at this point.

The cobalt mobian tried to ignore Shadow and Lancelot exchanging glares. He focused his attention on Lancelot.

"And you're ready to call it quits on fighting too, right, Lance?"

The knight continued to eye Shadow suspiciously, his ears still twitching in anger, but slowly he began to nod his head.

"I too will let this conflict rest. Though, I shall not let my guard down," Lancelot answered.

Sonic smiled between the two, though both refused to look at him. This wasn't the best outcome he could have imagined, but it definitely wasn't the worst. At least he was able to stop the two superpowered chaos beings from killing each other.

Their perfect little moment was interrupted, however, by the sounds of robots whizzing down the hallway, quickly approaching the room. Sonic frowned and took a fighting stance. There really was no moment of quiet on an Eggman ship … Though, he guessed that's what happens when you break into a mad scientist's home. Down the corridor, he heard the unfortunately familiar voice of none other than the doctor himself.

"That trashy pin cushion! The dirty rat-hog! Security droids, get him off of my ship!"

Sonic growled. Looks like they would have to fight their way out of this one. Guess it would be a good time to teach Eggman a lesson for messing with his friends. Sonic braced himself to start swinging as soon as Eggman hovered through that door. To his side, he got a glimpse of Lancelot stepping forward to stand next to him. Lancelot also braced himself in a fighting pose.

"This villain removed me of my sword upon taking me here, though it is no matter. I can defeat him either way," Lancelot explained plainly.

Sonic wasn't going to lie, he was worried about Lancelot. He didn't know if the hedgehog could really fight without his weapon and it didn't seem like his arcane abilities worked in this dimension either. He seemed to stand his own against Shadow a few moments ago, but who knows what would have happened if Sonic hadn't interrupted. Sonic was never one to back away from a fight, but he also wasn't the type of throw his allies into harm's way if he didn't think they could handle it.

Sonic could hear Eggman's hover mobile scooting ever closer to the door.

No, he couldn't let Lancelot fight this one. He couldn't risk having the other hedgehog kidnapped again. It would be better to escape now.

"Sonic, listen!" a voice boomed from behind him. Sonic twisted around to see that Shadow was standing on the far side of the room, his ears stretched upwards as if he were listening to the walls.

The blue hedgehog perked his ears up much the same way and focused closely. There was something he could hear from the other side of the wall. A humming noise. Like an engine, a really familiar engine—

"The Tornado!" Sonic called out. Shadow nodded, coming to the same conclusion. Tails and Amy must be right outside. Perfect! It was almost miraculous how that fox knew just when he needed to be there to save Sonic from a sticky situation.

"Hold it right there, hedgehogs—WHAT?"

Eggman spun around the entryway, a small group of robots behind him with their cannons raised. Whatever threat that Eggman was planning on making was quickly disturbed by his abrupt shock upon the sight before him.

"How could there possibly be two Shadows in here?" the mad scientist screamed. He quickly shook his head to dismiss the thought. "Never mind! Just capture them all!"

Lancelot took a step forward, preparing to charge at the first robot who approached him. Sonic never gave him the chance, however.

Sonic grabbed onto Lancelot's arm and yanked him away from Eggman to the other side of the room. The knight let out a short gasp, though surprisingly didn't resist the change in direction.

"Come on, Lance! We're blowing this popsicle stand!"

Perhaps Lancelot didn't recognize the expression, but he understood the sentiment. He picked up his own pace so he and Sonic could run faster as they charged directly at the wall where Shadow was standing. Shadow jumped into the air as the other two approached, once again summoning golden energy to his back hand.

"Chaos Spear!"

The attack unleashed and caused an explosion in the wall. Sonic could hear Eggman scream and complain from behind him, though didn't bother to look around and check. With his hand still firmly grasping Lancelot's arm, he leaped through the newly formed hole in the wall.

The sunlight nearly blinded the hedgehog as he broke free from the base and flew through the air. Without even realizing it, Sonic pulled Lancelot closer and wrapped both his arms around the other hedgehog so that they couldn't get separated during their fall.

The flying base had been hovering close to the ground, but it still was a near mile drop from the top of the ship where the newly-escaped hedgehogs were falling from. Sonic heard Lancelot grunt loudly as he prepared for impact.

"Sonic!"

The oh-so-familiar, high-pitch voice cut through the air and Sonic couldn't help but smile. Tails truly has never failed the hero before. He saw the Tornado race towards the falling duo, and Sonic stretched out his legs to prepare for the landing. The plane turned perfectly under his feet until both he and Lancelot were caught safely in the back seat of the plane. Unfortunately, Amy had been occupying the back seat and the hedgehogs nearly took her out on the way down. Thankfully, the girl was able to leap out of the way until she was squished up next to where Tails was sitting. She let out a small 'hey!' in annoyance.

"Ha, nice of you to drop in, Sonic!" the fox pilot announced. Sonic rolled his eyes at the pun, but a smile stayed planted on his face. He rescued Lancelot and they had escaped safely. That's all that mattered to him at the moment.

"And it's good to see that you got out safe too, Lancelot!" Amy added.

Lancelot nodded, though his attention seemed to be focused on Sonic. He spoke softly and quietly, to the point where it almost took Sonic by surprise.

"If you do not mind, may you please let go of me."

It was only at this moment that Sonic realized how close he was to the knight. He never fully removed his arms from around the other from when they had been falling, and this seat that they were sharing was already tight with one person in it. With two people, it felt like Sonic and Lancelot were practically seating on top of each other. Sonic suddenly felt very uncomfortable and his cheeks turned pink. He didn't say anything, but he quickly jerked his arms away from the other and pushed himself against the wall of the plane in order to create the most distance between the two as possible. He wanted to jump out of the seat altogether and go stand on the wing of the plane, but Lancelot's legs were overlapping with his own and, for some reason, Sonic felt too embarrassed to ask the knight to move them. It wasn't like Sonic to get so flustered, but he didn't want to linger on the topic any longer. What was most strange to him, however, was how polite Lancelot had asked him to move. Lancelot showed no issue in the past being assertive with Sonic, and Sonic would have expected the grumpy-hog to just shove him off or scold him for being too close. But, Lancelot's voice sounded so … gentle? Perhaps that wasn't the right word, but it was weird to Sonic and it made him feel weird the more he thought about it.

Thankfully, Sonic would not be trapped in his own thoughts for long, for a flash of light appeared on the back end of the plane, taking his attention away from it all. Everybody locked their eyes on the tail of plane, only to see the form of a hedgehog taking shape.

"—Control!"

Shadow stood firmly where the light used to be, seemingly unphased by the high velocity in which the aircraft was moving. Sonic tried to contain himself from facepalming. It just dawned on him that Shadow could have easily teleported all three of them safely out of Eggman's reach. But, of course Mr. Ultimate Lifeform would have Sonic and Lancelot jump out of a flying fortress and save the easy exit for himself.

"Hope you all don't mind if I hitch a ride," Shadow said, a slight smirk on his lips. It wasn't typical for Shadow to be so cocky, but he sometimes had his moments. Though Sonic hated to admit it, he honestly believed that some of his own attitude had rubbed off onto the darker hedgehog over the years.

"Ah! It's the real Shadow!" Amy declared, pushing herself up onto her knees as she examined the intruder on the back of the plane.

Tails returned his sight to the area in front of him, having to focus on steering in order to avoid crashing the plane. However, Sonic could see the fur on the back of his neck standing up slightly.

"I thought you were investigating Eggman," Sonic said, more annoyed than anything.

He honestly didn't mind if Shadow wanted to ride away on the Tornado with them, but he still couldn't shake his feelings of distrust towards the other. Sonic wasn't even fully certain if he believed Shadow's reasonings for breaking into Eggman's base. Shadow had said that Eggman was acting suspicious, but Sonic found that unlikely to be the whole truth. Shadow had some unclear goals, and Sonic didn't trust it one bit.

"Investigating Eggman?" Tails repeated, however both Sonic and Shadow ignored his comment.

Shadow huffed.

"I was, but I find this recent development to be much more interesting," he stated, waving his fingers to motion towards Lancelot. "Who are you?" Shadow asked coldly, staring daggers into his counterpart.

Lancelot furrowed his brow and his quills twitched.

"My name is Sir Lancelot, Ultimate Knight of the Round Table. I come from a different world, one that is in grave danger. I am here to save my own dimension, and Sonic is assisting me."

Sonic grumbled. It would have been more accurate to say that Sonic was the one who was trying to save Camelot, yet Lancelot rudely forced his way over into this dimension in order to 'help'. But, the hero decided to keep quiet for the time being. There wasn't a point in causing more tension between the group. It already seemed like Lancelot and Shadow were supplying enough tension between themselves to last the whole group for a while.

Besides, in an odd way, Sonic was glad that Lancelot was here. He was irritated at first, and he was still worried about the knight's ability to fight in this dimension. But, Lancelot was doing all of this because he cared about Arthur. Sonic thought that was commendable. Despite how overwhelming this world must be for the medieval mobian, he was willing to go through it all just to make sure that his friend was safe.

Plus, this gave Sonic the opportunity to mock the oh-so-fearless knight for being scared of cars. So it wasn't that bad of a set-up.

"A different dimension," Shadow repeated. He sighed, pressing his fingers to his temple. "Is there any situation you won't get yourself involved with, Sonic?"

"Nope!" Sonic replied happily. He winked at Shadow. "What can I say? I'm just the person to call when there's a world to save!"

"Does this mean that you're going to help us, Shadow?" Amy asked. She looked between the two twin hedgehogs, though both of them seemed more occupied with staring down each other than noticing her.

"That depends," Shadow began. "I am still quite uncertain about this whole situation."

Sonic was about to respond, but suddenly the whole plane jerked to a hard right. The motion was enough to cause Shadow to crouch and grip the edge of the Tornado.

"Wah! Sorry, guys!" Tails yelped, pulling hard on the controls in front of him. "But it seems like we have company!"

The entire group shifted their focus to what was going on behind them. At least a dozen Eggman robots had slipped out of the base and were in hot pursuit of the fleeing aircraft. Bullets and lasers zoomed past the plane as Tails twisted the ship from side to side in order to dodge.

Sonic pushed himself out of the seat, shoving Lancelot's legs off of his. He had forgotten all about his earlier discomfort as his mind focused solely on the challenge ahead of him. He jumped onto the wing of the plane and clung tightly as Tails continued to shift and turn.

"Floor it, Tails!" Sonic shouted. "I'll take care of these bots!"

"Wait, Sonic," Shadow interjected. Sonic looked up in surprise.

Shadow didn't take a moment to explain further, however. Instead, he dove into action – leaping from the plane and tackling droid after droid, using each robot as a springboard to jump after the next one. It almost looked like the hedgehog was flying as he propelled himself into each droid. At the end of the line, he used the final droid to propel himself back to Tails' plane, landing securely on the tail of the plane.

Amy and Tails both cheered, with Tails stepping on the accelerator to rush the Tornado away from the robotic base. Lancelot's face remained rather neutral to the whole engagement, but Sonic openly glared at his rival.

Way to take the spotlight, Shadow … Sonic thought about all the ways he could have easily done the same thing, though he kept his mouth shut. Shadow seemed unconcerned by the whole encounter, except for a small smirk he gave towards the blue hero. Sonic didn't know if Shadow was trying to be condescending or what, but Sonic didn't appreciate it regardless.

"Well, it sure would be nice to have you helping us!" Amy added, though Shadow seemed to be rather indifferent to her praise.

Sonic felt his ears lower. Shadow was an odd one, he never knew what to make of his behavior. He never understood anything that Shadow did.

Sonic looked over at Lancelot, who looked equally as unreadable as his lookalike.

The blue hero sighed.

How was he going to put up with two of these grumpy-hogs?


	10. You Don't Know Me

Chapter 10: You Don't Know Me

"You cannot seriously expect me to believe all of this," Shadow stated bluntly.

Sonic bit his lip and thumped his foot against the ground, his inner hothead getting the better of him once again. This was the second time today he had to explain his whole Camelot adventure to someone, and it was starting to get redundant for the hero. It didn't help that Shadow was being so difficult by questioning the story's authenticity.

"Well, that's the truth. Believe it or don't, why should I care?" Sonic crossed his arms as he spoke.

"I don't think it's that hard to believe that there is an alternative dimension out there where our counterparts still live in the medieval ages," Tails pipped in. "Compared to some of the other weird adventures we've been through, the concept of a medieval dimension is rather tame."

Now that they had returned to the lab, Tails had repositioned himself at his seat in front of his computer. However, he had turned himself around to face the group as Sonic went through his second explanation of the events. Tails twisted his tails around each other as he spoke to Shadow – that was his tell that his anxiety was getting the better of him. Despite the number of times Shadow had actually helped the group on their adventures, the little kit never was fully comfortable around him. Not that Sonic could blame his little buddy, since the hero himself could still be uncomfortable around Shadow at times. Turns out, Shadow's stand-offish personality wasn't the best for making friends.

"Oh, I do believe that Sonic travelled to an alternative dimension," Shadow responded, though his response took both Sonic and Tails by surprise. "The part I am doubtful of is that these people would have wanted Sonic to be their king."

This comment resulted in Sonic literally hopping in anger. Sonic couldn't tell if Shadow was purposefully teasing him or if he was genuinely doubting Sonic's story, but regardless, something about his rival always brought out his angry side.

"I can assure you that part is true," the calm voice of Lancelot spoke out, cutting Sonic away from his thoughts. The knight had been standing on the opposite side of the room from where Shadow was, and Sonic was certain that this was done on purpose. Whatever beef that existed between the two duplicates was still lingering in the air like a thick fog of tension.

"As Sonic mentioned, he bears an uncanny resemblance to our King Arthur. And, after Sonic assisted in aiding our kingdom, it was proven that the resemblance was more than just appearances," Lancelot continued. "The only difference between the two is that Arthur held a great respect for his title, whereas Sonic was more ungrateful when offered the opportunity to rule Camelot."

"I wasn't ungrateful! I just said no!" Sonic interjected. By this point, he had flattened his ears against his head. What was this? A Sonic-bashing fest? Sonic thought that Lancelot had gotten over the whole refusing-to-be-king thing, but now it seemed like Shadow and Lancelot were just taking turns to knock over the blue one's ego.

Shadow remained silent during this interaction, though his eyes shifted between Lancelot and Sonic. The hero once again wished he could read what was on Shadow's mind, but his face remained so neutral that it was impossible for him to tell. It was almost like Lancelot when he had his visor down on his helmet. Completely unreadable.

"It is hard to imagine Sonic being the king of anything, though," Amy said. She had been leaning on the counter next to Tails for a majority of the conversation, but now stepped forward. "I mean, no offense, Sonic, but you sometimes have a hard time managing yourself. I couldn't imagine you trying to manage a whole country."

Amy giggled at her own comments. Though she clearly didn't mean any harm by them, Sonic still let out a groan. Wasn't she supposed to be on his side?

"It is of no matter," Lancelot waved his hand dismissively as he spoke. "Once the true King Arthur is returned to Camelot, he will take his position as ruler again and peace shall be restored."

Sonic nodded, partially because he agreed with the sentiment and partially because he was happy that the focus was being taken off him once again.

"Then I guess I shall help you find him," Shadow stated. He said his answer so calmly and bluntly that it took Sonic a second to even process what he meant. Once the hero did process it, however, he beamed at the hedgehog and gave him a classic thumbs up.

"Alright!"

"Glad to hear it, Shadow!" Tails added. His two tails were still twitching against each other, but their movements had settled down some. "With three super-speed hedgehogs on our team, finding Arthur and the Arcane Emerald should be a piece of cake!"

"Indeed," Shadow said. "I suspect that Sonic's involvement with this alternative dimension is also related to the strange behavior of Eggman lately. If there is a foreign emerald on this planet, I am certain that Eggman would have been looking for it."

Sonic hummed. So, that's why he wanted to help. Not because he wanted to actually save a dying dimension or help out the team, but rather because it would benefit him on his own mission of investigating Eggman. Sonic wasn't surprised by this information, but he would be lying if he said that he wasn't at least a little disappointed.

"I thought of the same thing, Shadow," Tails commented. "I thought it was weird how Eggman was able to locate Lancelot based on some radar he was using."

This earned Sonic's attention.

"Yeah, I thought that was weird too!" Sonic added, though his comment went mostly unnoticed.

"I was thinking of all the different things that Eggman could have been tracing that would have led him straight to Lancelot, and that's when it hit me – What if Eggman was tracing arcane energy? I mean, I can only assume that Lancelot radiates arcane energy the same way you radiate chaos energy, Shadow!" the fox explained.

The entire group sat for a moment, thinking over what Tails was saying. It made sense. Arcane energy was probably the only thing that could have been unique enough about Lancelot that it would have been detectable by Eggman's radar.

"However, why would Eggman be following the signal of arcane energy if he had no idea what it was?" Shadow stated. Though it was a question, he presented it as more of a fact. Which, made sense, as the entire group knew what he was implying.

"Unless, Eggman did know about arcane energy already!" Amy announced, verbalizing the conclusion they were all reaching.

"And, as far as we know, Arthur and the Arcane Emerald are the only other two things in our dimension that are associated with arcane energy. So, for Eggman to have already known about arcane energy, he would have had to interact with either one of them," Tails finished.

"Or both of them," Lancelot added.

The entire team looked back and forth amongst each other. It was good to see that they were all on the same page. Sonic was particularly happy at how quickly this mystery was being solved. Of course Eggman would have stuck his rotten nose into the disappearance of Arthur and the destruction of Camelot! When wasn't the doctor at the heart of every problem Sonic faced?

With everybody reaching the same conclusion, the rest of the conversation took its natural course. They knew they needed to get to Eggman in order to find out what he knew about Arthur and the Arcane Emerald – but how? The Egghead wasn't exactly friends with any of them, and he would rather shoot Sonic and his friends to the moon before helping them save the day.

Tails and Amy talked back and forth about various methods they could take. Amy threw out the idea of just taking Eggman's base by storm now that they knew where he was hiding and then forcing the tyrant to confess his secrets. Sonic was quick to support that plan, but Tails was even quicker to turn it down. Eggman would have been smart enough to move his base by now after Sonic and Shadow destroyed half of it. Plus, Eggman still wouldn't be willing to negotiate even if Sonic pinned him to a wall, Tails explained.

Sonic turned around to catch Shadow's opinion on the plans. Yet, his stare was only met with the vacant space that Shadow once occupied. Sonic looked around, but to no use. Shadow was gone. Left without a trace.

Sonic raised an eyebrow.

"Um, did we say something to scare him off?" Sonic asked.

Lancelot lifted his head. The knight had been observing silently for the last few minutes, but suddenly came to life at the realization that his duplicate was gone.

"Guess he must have gone outside," Tails offered.

Sonic nodded and hopped off the counter he was leaning on. Whatever was up with Shadow, it wasn't helping them at the moment. They should have the whole team together if they are going to brainstorm. Before Sonic could take more than five steps, however, he felt a hand land on his shoulder. He turned around to find Lancelot standing behind him.

"Stay here, I shall go fetch him," was all the knight said.

Sonic pressed his lips together and thought about it for a second. He didn't know if it was a good idea to leave the two darker hedgehogs alone for long. For all he knew, they could break out into another fight any minute. But, on the other hand, he figured that Shadow and Lancelot would probably want to talk to one another at some point. Sonic knew that he sure wanted to meet and talk to this Arthur character in order to judge how alike they really are. Perhaps letting the two red-striped hedgehogs talk to each other would actually help ease up the tensions in the group. Sonic eventually smiled and nodded his head.

"Okay, he's all yours!"

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Lancelot made his way outside of the lab. The chaotic street life of the city seemed to be quieter now that there was a darkness coming over the sky. He could still hear those car vehicles zipping along the roads only a short distance away, but there was definitely less life out now than there was earlier this day.

Lancelot liked it better this way. The city seemed more manageable in the evening. He thought he heard a bird or two chirp from somewhere nearby, and it filled the knight with some amount of comfort knowing that at least there were still birds in this dimension. Despite the obvious differences between this place and his home, there were still some traces of familiarity to be found.

He glanced around to see if he could find any sign of his duplicate. It did not appear that this Shadow figure stuck around …

Lancelot did not know what to make of his counterpart. Admittedly, the knight almost had a heart attack when Sonic rushed into the room at Eggman's base with his lookalike. Seeing another version of yourself was … unsettling, to say the least. It was like watching a theater performance where somebody played as you, yet all their actions and words were foreign to you.

There were some similarities that Lancelot could spot between them, he supposed. For starters, this Shadow was clearly a skilled fighter, taking out a swarm of enemies quite quickly and standing his own during their own duel. There also was a sense of assertiveness and seriousness that Lancelot recognized in both himself and his counterpart. However, his counterpart seemed a little more cold – at least in the ways he interacted with the others. The way Shadow interacted with Sonic and the others made it clear that they were not friends – perhaps not even allies. The fox and the pink hedgehog seemed to both distrust Shadow while still admiring him for his abilities, and then there was Sonic …

Lancelot could not tell how Sonic and Shadow felt about each other. Sonic would jest with Shadow sometimes, so their relationship did not seem to be hostile. But, then again, Sonic seemed to jest with everybody, including Lancelot himself from time-to-time. It was also notable that Shadow willingly helped Lancelot and Sonic escape from the base, meaning they were at least on decent terms with each other. Yet, the two seemed to annoy each other, and on more than one occasion, Shadow and Sonic had hinted at some sort of rivalry between them.

Perhaps that was actually understandable to Lancelot, though. He too had a complicated relationship with the blue hedgehog. Sonic was – to put it simply – annoying. Sonic could be arrogant and childish and sometimes completely uncaring towards any form of structure or responsibility. That sort of free-thinking drove Lancelot wild, and he could only assume it would drive his duplicate insane as well if the two of them were truly as alike as Lancelot believed. But, though Lancelot hated to admit it, there were some qualities that were irresistibly likable about the cobalt hero. Sonic was optimistic and carried a strong sense of justice. His determination to help people in need was admirable to Lancelot, even though the knight could hardly understand why Sonic was so sympathetic to certain individuals.

Many of the traits Lancelot saw in Sonic were ones he saw in Arthur. The more he thought about it, the more sense it made that Arthur and Sonic were counterparts.

But, that made Shadow and Sonic's relationship all the more foreign to Lancelot. Arthur was a great and well-respected king, and Lancelot would be the first to follow Arthur anywhere. Beyond that, Arthur was undoubtably the most important person in Lancelot's life … though, there was a lot that could be said about their relationship.

Shadow and Sonic clearly did not have this kind of bond, though. Lancelot would have happily laid down his life for Arthur, and he even came close to doing so on more than one occasion. Yet Shadow seemed to detest the idea of assisting Sonic with anything that did not directly benefit himself.

It was odd.

"I am still trying to figure you out, Lancelot," a voice from above rang out.

Lancelot whipped around and looked up towards the voice. On the roof of Tails' laboratory stood the very hedgehog Lancelot had been looking for. The knight mentally scolded himself for not thinking to look up upon coming out here. He wondered how long Shadow had sat there simply watching him stand outside.

Shadow jumped off the side of the building and landed neatly a few feet away from Lancelot. He crossed his arms and took a defensive stance where only his side was visible to the counterpart.

"You claim that your dimension is in trouble because this Arcane Emerald was removed from its home world and relocated here," Shadow continued. Though he stated this sentence as fact, there was clearly some level of uncertainty in what he was saying.

Lancelot hummed out in confirmation. Shadow continued.

"So, Sonic was returned to this world in order to find the emerald and return it back to the dimension where it belongs. In doing so, he will most likely also find his counterpart who has supposedly been stranded here as well – this Arthur the Hedgehog."

"Yes, that is correct," Lancelot responded.

"Then, why are you here?" Shadow asked, he moved his eyes so they were piercing directly into Lancelot's now. "Wouldn't you being here put your planet more in danger? If the problem is that there are elements of your dimension in our dimension where they do not belong, then moving yourself here would only exacerbate the problem."

Lancelot tried to restrain a snort. These were the very same concerns that Sonic had when he had discovered that Lancelot followed him through the portal. Funny how the two hedgehogs of this dimension thought so much alike.

"I am here because Arthur is here," Lancelot answered plainly. "My duty was to always protect the king, and I take that responsibility quite seriously."

Shadow narrowed his brows, but let the silence linger for several seconds.

"Why are you lying to me?"

This question surprised Lancelot to the point where he could have sworn he misheard the other.

"What?"

"You cannot fool me so easily," Shadow started. "If you and I are anything alike, then I know that a sense of duty would not be enough to carry you across a dimension unless there was something else motivating you."

Shadow now had turned himself so he was looking directly at the other, his eyes were filled with some level of determination – though Lancelot could not place what for. Shadow continued to speak.

"I was once given a mission to complete, but I willingly abandoned it when I realized a greater purpose of mine given to me by someone I cared about deeply," Shadow stated bluntly.

Shadow pressed his eyes closed and turned his face downwards as he spoke. His tone seemed … softer, if not only for a brief second. Lancelot perked his ears up, confused by the nature of this response. However, Lancelot could not help but feel a certain level of understanding. From what it sounds like, these two had similar pasts. Or, at least, comparable situations.

"So what I am asking is," Shadow continued, opening his eyes towards Lancelot again. "What was your true motivation for coming to this dimension?"

Lancelot stood quietly for a moment, debating on how he should answer. He knew so little of this hedgehog, and yet he also knew almost everything about him. They were certainly the same person in many respects, though also individuals in equally as many respects. It was a tough line to walk, and Lancelot did not know where he fell. However, if there were anyone in this world who could actually understand Lancelot's past, then it would have to be Shadow. There did not seem to be a point in lying to his own self.

"I told you the truth, it was because Arthur is here."

Shadow cocked his head to the side. "What—"

Lancelot did not let Shadow interject, but rather kept speaking over him. "You said that you were once on a mission, but had a change of heart because of someone you cared about. Though you kept your description vague, I can only assume it is similar to my own story."

Shadow pressed his mouth closed, clearly intrigued by this remark. His face remained rather neutral, though Lancelot saw a crack of curiosity. Lancelot continued on.

"Ever since I was old enough to wield a sword, I was trained to be the Ultimate Knight – unbeatable and endlessly loyal to my kingdom. Until one day, the very people who sought to train me began to fear my abilities and the chaos I would be capable of causing. They took everything from me as a result of their own fears and insecurities, including taking the life of somebody quite dear to me …"

Lancelot's voice dwindled into silence at this mention. He knew his eyes were probably revealing his inner sadness, an emotion he typically hid from the world. But, he did not mind. For he could tell his story was hitting a chord with his duplicate. Shadow was fixated on the hedgehog across from him, and though he did not say anything, Lancelot could see a bit of sympathy in his eyes.

"I was left with nothing. Nothing but my own anger. I wanted the people to pay for the crimes they committed against me and my fallen friend. If they choose to fear my powers, then I would show them just how frightening I could be."

Lancelot's voice raised as he spoke, almost as if his old anger was reemerging from somewhere deep within him. But, Lancelot knew he was only doing this for show. His past angers have long since subsided. He still felt the pain in his chest as he thought about his friend and all the memories he shared with her, and all the memories he will never share with her. But, he was no longer angry. He was just sad.

"I made a plan to destroy the kingdom – not only my home kingdom, but all monarchies and civilizations. With the help of all seven Arcane Emeralds, it would have been an easy feat. But, then …" Lancelot pressed his eyes closed once again, taking a deep breath. "Then, Arthur came for me."

Shadow stood there silently, but Lancelot could feel the atmosphere change. The tension seemed to dissipate in the air as Shadow seemed more … understanding? Compassionate? Lancelot did not know what word to use to describe it, but for a brief moment, he felt as if the two of them were truly together. It was challenging for Lancelot to speak of these things. Goodness knows that the knight was the type to keep his emotions and his past hidden behind layers of masks. Yet, Lancelot did not regret opening up to Shadow. If anything, Shadow was the only one who could actually understand him.

"So he was more than just your universe's Sonic?" Shadow asked, cocking his eyebrow.

Lancelot paused for a moment, examining the area in front of him rather than making eye contact with his duplicate.

"I suppose that is one way of putting it," Lancelot answered. His relationship with Arthur was definitely different than Shadow's relationship with Sonic. Lancelot could tell that right away from how his duplicate acted around the blue hero.

Lancelot could feel Shadow drilling holes into the side of Lancelot's head with his eyes. As much as Lancelot felt the sympathy Shadow had for him, there was still a voice in Lancelot's head scolding the knight for opening up. It was awkward and uncomfortable for Lancelot to be this vulnerable. It was at times like this where Lancelot would normally take shelter behind his armor, but unfortunately he was naked. His chest plate, his visor, his helmet – all of it was left behind at Eggman's base. And Lancelot hated it.

Shadow shook his head.

"But, what I don't understand is why are you serving this king as a knight? Chasing him around like a lost puppy? Sure, he convinced you to change your course, but you don't owe Camelot anything. You decided to move on from your past on your own. Why are you going around acting like a tool for somebody else when you finally have the chance to carve your own destiny?" With each question, Shadow's voice only increased in aggression. Whatever peace existed between the two fell under the weight of these new accusatory demands.

Lancelot folded his ears back, the warm feelings he had for his duplicate subsiding to new feelings of rage. Just as he thought Shadow and him were beginning to understand each other, the other had to ruin it. Clearly, Shadow must have related to some of Lancelot's story. There would be no need for Shadow to be so invested in Lancelot's business unless the other feared that Lancelot's behavior was some reflection of his own.

"So, I take it you have the same past as I?" Lancelot asked. It was the only explanation that made sense for Shadow's response to hearing Lancelot's tale. Clearly, whatever Lancelot went through on Camelot, Shadow had a similar experience here on Mobius. Why else would Lancelot's feelings and actions matter so much to Shadow?

"Well," Lancelot continued. "To answer your remarks, I did carve out my own destiny. I just could not foresee a destiny without him."

"Sonic?" Shadow's voice was almost disgusted, though mostly intrigued.

"Arthur, in my case," Lancelot corrected. Though, he did mentally note how quick Shadow was to use Sonic's name.

"You shouldn't be a sucker for somebody else. You should stand for yourself," Shadow retorted.

"Perhaps you should learn how to give yourself up to somebody else instead of hiding behind this façade of loneliness and indifference," Lancelot responded. The knight was trying hard to keep his calm demeanor, but it was becoming increasingly challenging the longer he spoke to this rather rude duplicate of his. He bit his lip to hold his tongue.

"Façade?"

"Yes, façade," Lancelot repeated, putting a strong foot forward. Shadow did not intimidate him. Lancelot had faced rivals far more frightening than this counterpart. "I saw the way you protected Sonic yesterday, how you did not want him to fight."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You were the one who choose to help Sonic with his mission when you had no need to, and you were the one who suggested we run from Eggman when he came to attack, and the one who defeated the enemies chasing our plane even though Sonic could have easily done the same. You did not want Sonic to fight yesterday. Now, why is that, may I ask?"

Lancelot asked, this time coming at Shadow with his own supply of weaponized remarks.

"You are insane." Shadow was defensive now, bending his arms over his chest. He scowled at the other, though Lancelot knew he struck a nerve. As much as Shadow tried to deny it, Lancelot knew the truth. Shadow could not even hide it. He cared about Sonic more than he put on. Lancelot just did not know why.

"Dang, what did I walk in on?" a third voice bounced from the doorway of Tails' lab. Both of the lookalikes jerked around, equally surprised.

"Oh, Sonic!" Lancelot exclaimed. He felt his face heat up, but he did not know why. He had no reason to be nervous around the blue hedgehog. Perhaps it was because he was so open to Shadow about his own past? He only hoped the blue hedgehog had not been around long enough to hear that. It was hard enough to Lancelot to be open with Shadow, the last thing he needed was to share his feelings with Sonic as well.

"Sorry for interrupting the moment, but I figured if you guys spent too much time out here, one of you might start trying to kill the other!" Sonic laughed as he stepped out of the doorway and towards the duo.

Shadow looked towards the ground, quite obviously avoiding the gaze of the intruder to the conversation. Lancelot wondered if his words had sunk in with his duplicate, or perhaps Shadow was always like this. Lancelot had not known the other long enough to tell. He was still caught between understanding just how alike they were. At one moment, Lancelot could have sworn that Shadow and he were almost identical, but then the next moment, Shadow seemed to act in a way completely foreign to the knight.

Sonic seemed to pick up on this awkwardness, however, as he cocked an eyebrow at Shadow before looking over towards Lancelot. His face said it all – 'what's up with him?' Lancelot shrugged in response.

"I will help your friends make a plan," Shadow stated bluntly, disrupting the silence. Sonic perked his ears up in surprise.

"Oh, perfect!" the blue hero clapped his hands as he spoke, though he looked a little uncertain.

"Though, I must make myself clear that I am only helping so that your friend can go home faster," Shadow forced out, straining the word 'friend'. Shadow walked pass Sonic with complete determination. He roughly hit his shoulder against the other, causing Sonic to take a step back in defense. The speedy hero looked even more baffled now than before.

As soon as Shadow disappeared into the laboratory, Sonic turned to Lancelot.

"That was … weird."

"Indeed," Lancelot responded.

Sonic shrugged his shoulders, dismissing the negativity of the other. "Oh well, who can tell with Shadow? I actually came out here to talk to you, Lance."

"Me? What for?"

"I heard you complaining earlier about losing your armor—" This was an understatement. Lancelot complained the entire flight away from Eggman's base about how much he wanted his armor and how he was furious Eggman took it from him.

"—And I figured this could be an opportunity to show you more of the city. So, let's go on a shopping trip!"

Lancelot figured there was more to this story than Sonic was letting on, but felt too intrigued in order to call him out. What was a shopping trip? Lancelot was not one to get distracted from his main objective, but he knew it would take the others more time to come up with a concrete plan. In the meantime, learning about this world could be advantageous to figuring out where Arthur is. Lancelot remembered the run he took through the rolling fields when he first landed in Mobius before they approached the city. This planet interested him. Plus, he would be lying if he said that he was not looking for an excuse to avoid being around Shadow, which seemed to be his alternative if he declined Sonic's offer.

"Fine, then let us go. Though first –" Lancelot hesitated for a second. "What is a shopping trip?"

Sonic snorted loudly. "It means that we are going to get you some new clothes – to replace the armor you lost. Only this time, you are wearing something that actually fits the time period you're in!"

Lancelot folded his ears back. He did not like the sound of this. Sonic only laughed at the other's uncertainty.

"Most shopping centers are closed by this time," Sonic added, looking up at the sky as the darkness continued to settle in. "But, I know a few spots that are probably still open. This is probably a good time to go anyway, because less people will be out. That means they'll be less chances for you to make a fool of yourself in public." Sonic grinned deviously at the other as he added this last remark. Lancelot huffed, unamused.

Without any more fuss, the two hedgehogs strolled into the downtown area. It was a short enough of a distance away that the two, surprisingly, did not run there. Lancelot was mentally grateful for this fact, as he still had clear memories of the embarrassment he faced after trying to run through the city earlier. Lancelot enjoyed this casual pace that allowed him to take in the gentle breeze that hustled down the street. Several people stopped to stare at the hedgehog duo as they walked, but nobody approached them, to Lancelot's relief. Lancelot looked up at the towers lingering over them, amazed at the spectacle of lights that streamed from every window, illuminating the dark evening.

Lancelot took this opportunity to learn even more about the city. Every few feet, he would direct his attention to a new object and inquire Sonic about its function. The blue hero seemed happy enough to explain everything. To Lancelot's delightful surprise, Sonic actually was willing to answer all of his questions without a trace of mockery or condescension, which the knight had expected from the other. Sonic actually came across as being … patient. Which was an adjective Lancelot never anticipated using for the rebellious speedster.

This was a somewhat different side to Sonic. Seeing him, walking slow, explaining the various elements of the world, occasionally shooting a smile or two at Lancelot – it was definitely a side of Sonic that Lancelot never saw back in Camelot. Perhaps Sonic felt more at peace here in his home world, and thus had let his guard down? Or maybe this is simply how Sonic acted around people he was comfortable around?

Was Sonic comfortable around Lancelot?

For some reason, that question bothered Lancelot more than he thought it would.

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First it was the fire hydrant, then it was the department store building, then it was the light post, and the recycling bin, and the bicycle, and who knows what else. By the end of it, Sonic was confident that he had probably explained every item in the entire city to his medieval friend.

And Lancelot still had more questions.

Sonic didn't mind answering the questions – in fact, he would much prefer to talk about bicycles and fire hydrants instead of whatever awkward conversation had occurred between Shadow and Lancelot.

Sonic didn't hear a lot of their conversation. He wasn't trying to eavesdrop, and he normally wasn't the nosy type anyway. However, he approached them at apparently the wrong time.

'You did not want Sonic to fight yesterday. Now, why is that, may I ask?'

Shadow hardly gave an answer, but there was just something about the question itself. Why would Lancelot even ask that? What were the two of them talking about before that triggered this question? It made Sonic feel uneasy, in a way.

Sonic usually never really cared what people said about him behind his back. He knew he was great. He had the confidence to shake off other people's criticisms. However, Sonic had a feeling that there was something different about this conversation between the two duplicates. Neither Lancelot nor Shadow showed any hesitation in insulting Sonic directly to his face, so what would they possibly say to each other without Sonic around? It didn't seem like they were speaking poorly about Sonic. In fact, the way Lancelot asked that question, it almost implied that he thought Shadow was protective over Sonic.

That made Sonic feel weird. He could never understand that. Shadow had never been protective over him. In fact, the ebony hedgehog would probably gladly throw Sonic into harm's way if Shadow thought it was convenient to do so. Heck, there have been situations where Shadow was the danger! Sonic couldn't even count the number of times the two of them fought or the times Shadow sided with Eggman over the hedgehog! To say that Shadow was in any way protective over Sonic was laughable to the hero.

But then, why did Lancelot ask that question?

Either way, the thought bothered him and Sonic didn't want to think about it anymore. It was time for him to get his mind off things and focus on the present. He smiled over at Lancelot, who was closely examining the various objects that appeared in the store windows.

The two hedgehogs had walked into the shopping district of the downtown. There seemed to be a never-ending row of shops and storefronts, all selling a whole variety of different items. There were a few people bustling in and out of stores, though for the most part, the streets were quiet. Lancelot seemed perplexed by most of what he saw and Sonic was only waiting for him to ask the next question about what something was.

"Pick any shop you like, Lance!" Sonic stated. Lancelot twisted his head, giving the blue hero a bewildering expression. He was overwhelmed, Sonic could tell.

"Or, you could just describe to me what types of clothes you like and I could help you find a store that works?" Sonic asked.

"Are there blacksmiths in your world? I would like a new set of armor," Lancelot answered, his voice as monotoned as ever.

"Sorry, the blacksmith market never really took off in the city. Turns out, armor isn't that hip here." Sonic cocked his head playfully as the other hedgehog grumbled in annoyance.

"I would like something practical. Something that is wearable, yet effective in combat. It must be presentable and dignified, though not extravagant. It must add to my defense in battle while not impairing my speed and agility." Lancelot stared at Sonic intently as he spoke. "Is that an adequate description?"

Sonic stared at Lancelot blankly for a moment, looking at the hedgehog up-and-down. After only a brief pause, the blue hero burst out laughing. Lancelot huffed.

"Look, you might need to lower your expectations!" Sonic hollered as his laughter fizzled out. "New plan – I'll see if I spot anything that screams 'Lancelot' and you let me know if you like it."

Lancelot seemed less-than-impressed by this new plan as a scowl crossed his face, though he oddly did nothing to object. Sonic eyed through the various windows they walked pass. As they moved along, Sonic became increasingly aware of the light breeze traveling down the street. Sonic let out a soft 'brrrr' as his fur began to stand up. Instinctually, Sonic began to inch closer to his companion, his body searching for any source of body heat to fight the cold. Sonic was hardly aware that he was doing this until he felt his arm brush against Lancelot's side. Instantly, Sonic moved several steps away from Lancelot, his face becoming heated at the encounter. He hoped Lancelot wouldn't make a comment about it. Thankfully, it seemed like the knight hardly noticed.

Sonic refocused his attention to the windows. A smirk shot across Sonic's face as his eye caught sight of something through the storefront glass.

"Ah, now this SCREAMS 'Lancelot'!"

Sonic jabbed his finger in the direction of the shop window, causing Lancelot to stop in his tracks just to avoid being hit in the face with Sonic's arm. The knight perked his ears up and looked eagerly towards the potential outfit.

It was a bright pink tutu draped over a miniature mannequin. It was so sparkly with so many layers of thin, frilly fabric that the legs of the figure were practically covered underneath.

Lancelot glared at Sonic, any form of amusement drained from his face. Sonic only snorted in response.

"Come on, don't you ever laugh at yourself!" Sonic prodded as he poked Lancelot's arm.

Lancelot pressed his lips together and turned his head away from Sonic.

"Oh, look," the knight added, pointing his finger towards the same window. "And here is an outfit that would be perfect for you, Sonic."

Sonic looked over to where Lancelot was pointing to find a taller mannequin dressed completely in a jester get-up, complete with a jingly hat with bells attached and rainbow-colored pantaloons.

Lancelot smirked at his response and took several steps forward, leaving Sonic behind.

"Oh, hey, hey! So, you have jokes now, huh?" Sonic called out, quickly catching up with Lancelot. "Hold up, I think I have some more clothes to show you! I promise they are perfect for you!"

Sonic grabbed onto Lancelot's arm as he spoke, not wasting a moment before yanking the other hedgehog back towards the costume shop and leading the two inside.

Once they were inside, the minutes quickly faded away. Sonic had expected Lancelot to throw a fit or complain about how they were wasting time, though, surprisingly, he did neither of those things. Instead, as Sonic proceeded to show the other increasingly ridiculous costumes, Lancelot did little more than grumble or occasionally groan. At one point, Sonic could have sworn that he saw the crack of a smile on Lancelot's muzzle. Regardless if it was really there or if was just wishful thinking, Sonic felt like he was finally getting the medieval hedgehog to loosen up, and he wasn't going to let Lancelot get away that easily. Soon enough, there were piles upon piles of costumes, crazy hats, and glittery wigs on the floor as the two hedgehogs proceeded to present each other with increasingly comical outfits.

"Hey, hey, Lance!" Sonic hollered, hopping out from behind a clothing rack. "How do I look?"

As soon as Lancelot turned around, Sonic struck a pose, showing off the oversized cowboy hat sitting up his quills. Lancelot let out a long sigh.

"You look absolutely moronic," he stated. Though, even behind his blunt response, Sonic detected a bit of amusement. Maybe even a light chuckle, if the hedgehog was being generous. Sonic beamed.

Lancelot gave his own devilish grin to Sonic. His first full smile of the evening. Sonic almost wanted to pinch himself.

"If I may ask, do you believe I look better with—" Lancelot started, holding up a small mustache to his muzzle "—or without the long facial fur?" Lancelot raised a inquisitive eye at Sonic, though a corner of his smile could still be seen from under the fake facial hair.

Sonic could not control the delight on his face. It was hard to imagine that just days ago, this knight was one of the biggest thorns in his side. He was always so stoic and serious – just like a certain other hedgehog Sonic knew. To see Lancelot being playful and cracking jokes, it was completely unexpected to Sonic. But, he enjoyed it. It brought out something new in Lancelot, something that Sonic wasn't sure was actually there. For one of the first times, Sonic could actually understand why Lancelot and his counterpart Arthur were so close.

"I must say, I'm a sucker for long facial fur," Sonic added, letting his voice linger before continuing. "But, I think I'd miss the original, clean-shaven face of Lance that I've grown to love."

Though his voice was dripping in sarcasm and snidely undertones, Lancelot still hesitated at what Sonic said. The knight quickly turned his back to the hedgehog, aimlessly searching through a pile of costumes. Sonic let his ears fall slightly, though forced them back up before Lancelot noticed. Perhaps that last comment was a bit too much? Sonic knew if sounded flirty, but he was being sarcastic. He was just poking fun at the other. Certainly, Lancelot knew that, right? I mean, obviously. Why would Sonic have ever seriously said something like that? It was a joke.

"Hm, this looks like something that your lady might wear," Lancelot stated, breaking the awkward silence.

Sonic perked up and looked over, seeing Lancelot presenting a longer pink dress with various flowers shaped out of plastic beads sown into it. However, the dress was not what struck Sonic as odd.

"My lady?" the blue hero questioned, scrunching his face in the process.

"I mean to refer to Amy, the one who is a counterpart to the Lady of the Lake," Lancelot explained, sounding unexpectantly serious. "I am unsure of what terminology people use in your world, but I assume that she is someone you are currently courting?"

Sonic's face turned red and he instinctually began to brush his hand through his quills.

"Wow, wow, hold up! You mean, like, dating?" Sonic let out a nervous laugh. "Amy and I are friends, that's it. Only friends."

Lancelot looked genuinely surprised by this. He let his head fall to the side.

"You mean to say that you are not pursuing her?"

"Not in that way, no," Sonic added, embarrassment still evident in his voice. He wasn't sure what it was, but the topic of crushes and dating always brought a pit to Sonic's stomach. It was weird for him to talk about this type of stuff, and he certainly didn't want to talk about it here with Lancelot, where there were all these other shoppers around who were watching their every move.

"I like Amy as a friend," Sonic said. "But there's nothing more to it than that."

Lancelot nodded slowly, though he did not seem fully convinced. Sonic pressed his lips together.

This wasn't the first time somebody thought Amy and Sonic were a couple. It happened all the time in gossip magazines and by his fans. Sonic couldn't even count the number of times women have approached him asking how 'serious' he and Amy were, or how many times paparazzi have taken photographs of Amy and him hanging out and claimed that they were caught on a 'date'. It made Sonic uncomfortable, to say the least. Though, talking about relationships made him nervous enough that he would rather just avoid the topic altogether rather than publicly challenge any of these rumors. It had gotten to the point where even Amy was fed up with the attention. Even with all of her own beliefs about how Sonic and her were soulmates, she still had her limits to how much she could tolerate other people sticking their noses into her personal life.

However, something about Lancelot being the one to believe that he and Amy were a couple rubbed Sonic the wrong way. He couldn't label what it was or why he felt that way, but it was there in the pit of his stomach.

Lancelot appeared to be rather unfazed, even if a little confused.

"I noticed you gave her the necklace that Nimue presented you, and when I first met Amy, she mentioned that you had missed an engagement with her," Lancelot stated plainly. "That is why I thought you two may have been involved with one another. I did not mean to offend you."

Sonic blinked a few times. He had completely forgotten about the necklace Nimue gave him once again. He mentally cursed his poor memory, though quickly shook the thought out of his head. So, that explains where Lancelot's suspicions came from.

"It isn't like that," Sonic answered. "Amy has a sort of thing for me, I guess, but we're only friends."

Lancelot hummed in response, though his face remained mostly unreadable. He turned back to the dress he was still holding and tossed it to the side. Sonic watched Lancelot closely as he moved. This is probably the longest he has been around Lancelot where the other didn't mention something about Arthur or lecture Sonic for leaving Camelot. It was nice being able to have a peaceful interaction with the knight. He liked it. But, there was something new nagging at his mind.

"Did Arthur have a girlfriend? Or, a lady, or whatever you medieval people call a woman you like?"

Lancelot flinched at the question, though Sonic couldn't imagine why. Sonic flattened his ears. It was an odd question, Sonic knew that, but he felt like he had to ask. Arthur was basically him. If Arthur was seeing somebody, then that was comparable to Sonic seeing that person. It was weird for Sonic to think about, but he had to know.

"I mean, him and Nimue weren't dating or anything, were they?" Sonic continued.

"No, no, The Lady of the Lake and him were not involved with each other," Lancelot responded quickly. His voice sounded somewhat assertive, very factual about the matter. Sonic almost felt bad for asking.

But, he didn't feel too bad. Afterall, Sonic felt like he had sort of a right to know. It was his own life, just a different person was living it.

"As a king, he would have only been involved with someone who could potentially fill the role of queen," Lancelot added, his voice still quite serious.

Sonic hummed. He guessed that meant that Arthur was single then? Lancelot didn't really give a straight-forward answer, but Sonic didn't know how else to interpret his response. If Arthur only dated someone who could be a queen, then that really only left Percival, Merlina, and Nimue as his only options. Lancelot said that there was nothing going on between Nimue and Arthur, and Sonic felt like Percival or Merlina would have told him if either of them were involved with Arthur. There didn't seem to be any other women who were particularly close to the king.

In a way, it was relieving to know that Arthur was single. It took some pressure off of Sonic. Imagining Arthur with somebody would force Sonic to imagine himself with that same somebody. It would be like admitting that there was some part of himself that could fall in love with that same person.

"Huh," Sonic finally added. "And I thought dating over in this world was stressful."

"You have no idea," Lancelot added.

With that, Lancelot abruptly stood up and walked pass Sonic, leaving the piles of clothes on the ground. Sonic followed with his eyes as Lancelot walked on.

"Let us go," Lancelot stated. "We wasted enough time here and I believe your friends will be wondering where we were."

Well, sounded like the party was over. The old, no-fun-allowed Lancelot was back and whatever fun Sonic was having was over. Sonic sighed loudly and pouted, though Lancelot didn't seem to notice. Lancelot continued to walk out of the store and Sonic had to hurry just to catch up with him.

"Wait, wait, before you head out!" Sonic called out. "We haven't even found your new outfit yet! I think I saw something you might like – seriously, this time!"

"Sonic, I don't have time for –"

"I'm being serious," Sonic interrupted. "I think you will actually like this one."

Sonic looked directly into Lancelot's eyes. The two hedgehogs stood there for a moment, closely examining the other's gaze. There was a second of silence.

"Fine. One more outfit."


End file.
